2 Barb. 427 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1848
I think the court below decided correctly in refusing to discharge the defendant on the first ground taken by his counsel. Although the letters were written and mailed in Steuben county, yet as they were directed to, and received in, Livingston county by the person to whom they were addressed, the indictment was properly found in the latter county.
The court also properly refused to allow the defendant to prove the informality complained of in the organization of the grand jury. An issue upon the plea of not guilty had been regularly joined, dud that was the issue which was being tried, and upon that a petit jury had been empannelled and the case on the part of the people had been gone through with. The objection was clearly too late, and it would have been unprecedented to allow this collateral issue to be raised át so late a period.
The only remaining question to be considered is upon that part of the charge in which the jury were instructed that it was entirely immaterial whether Heath, the individual to whom the alleged threatening letters were written, owed the defendant the $16, claimed, or not. It is a question, I believe, of entirely new impression, and is not without its difficulties. The section of the statute under which the defendant was indicted and convicted, (2 R. /S'. 678, § 59,) is in the following words: “ Every person who shall knowingly send or deliver, or shall make, and for the purpose of being delivered or sent, shall part with the possession of, any letter or writing, with or without a name subscribed thereto, or signed with a fictitious name, or with any letter, mark or other designation, threatening therein to accuse any person of any crime, or to do any injury to the person or property of any one, with a view or intent to extort or gain any money or property of any description, belonging to another, shall, upon conviction, be adjudged guilty of an attempt to rob, and shall be punished by imprisonment in a state’s prison not exceeding five years.” In order to constitute the offence created by this statute, the letters must be sent, &c. with a view or intent to extort or gain money or property, Spc. belonging to another. The intent
I think it is of some consequence in this view of the subject, that the legislature have designated the name of the offence. It is declared an attempt to rob. Before the statute, the act of obtaining money or property without a color or claim of right, through the means of threatening letters, was not a subject of criminal cognizance; and yet it is apparent that such acts were as dangerous, and accompanied with as much moral turpitude, as the crime of robbery. In declaring the act a crime, and providing for its punishment, the legislature have, with great propriety, placed the offence in the same class with that
In the case of The People v. Thomas, (3 Hill, 169,) it was held that a false representation, tending merely to induce one to pay a debt previously due from him, is not within the statute against obtaining property by false pretences, though payment be thereby obtained. (See also Rex v. Williams, 7 Car. & P. 354; 32 Eng. Com. Law Rep. 550.) These cases are cited to show that the ultimate object or intent of the party accused must be unlawful, in order to constitute the offence under a statute, the object of which was to prevent and punish acts, somewhat in character with, and certainly not more criminal in their nature, than those punishable by the statute under consideration.
Conviction reversed, and new trial granted.
Maynard, J. dissenting.