54 Mo. 182 | Mo. | 1873
delivered the opinion of the court.
James Keel was indicted for perjury in the Madison Circuit Court. The indictment is as follows:
“ State oe Missouri, County of Madison.
In the Circuit Court of Madison County, Missouri:
To September Term A. I)., 1872.
The grand jurors of the. State of Missouri now herein court, duly impaneled, sworn and charged to inquire within and for the body of Madison County, upon their oath do present, that at the Circuit Court begun and holden at Fredericktown within, and for the County of Madison, on the 4th Monday in March, 1871, by Hon. Wm. Carter, Judge of said Circuit Court, before the grand jurors of said State of Missouri, for said County of Madison, which said grand jurors wer© then and there duly°and legally convened, having then and there been duly aud legally impaneled and sworn according to the provisions of law in that behalf, a certain complaint was then and there made and presented against one Joel Lunsford, and certain other persons whose names are unknown
The defendant filed his motion to quash the indictment, alleging among other things in said motion; that sufficient facts were not stated in the indictment to enable the court to determine the materiality of the testimony therein set forth ; that it did not appear, that the grand jury had jurisdiction of the subject matter of the inquiry; that no venue was given as to the alleged arson, and ho time, place or circumstance connected with that alleged offense, set forth ; that the testimony of the defendant, as set forth in the indictment, could not by any possibility be material to any issue that could arise upon the subject of arson.
This motion was successful. The indictment was quashed and the State has appealed.
There is nothing in the points raised by the motion, that it did not appear that the grand jury had jurisdiction over the subject matter of the inquiry, nor that no venue as to the crime of arson, was set forth. For our statute, respecting indictments for perjury, only requires the substance of the offense charged to be set forth; by what court or official the oath was taken, averring the competency of such court or person to administer the same, together with the proper averments to falsify the matter wherein the perjury is assigned, and does not require the setting forth of the authority of the court or person before whom the perjury was committed.
And no venue is necessary to be stated in the body of the indictment. That stated in the margin is “ taken to be the venue for all the facts stated in the body of the indictment.” (W. S., 477, §7; 1090, §26.)
If the fact of the presence of the defendant at the ball were a necessary link in the chain of circumstances, whereby guilt could be fastened on those who perpetrated the arson, it was indispensable, that this should have been plainly and distinctly set forth, in order that its materiality could be at once apparent.
Nor is the radical defect in the indictment, which I have pointed out, in the least aided or cured by general averments, that the testimony of defendant was material. For such statements as these are but allegations of a legal inference, and not of a distinct fact. It only belongs to the province of grand j urors to state facts in their indictments. They must leave the legal inference deducible from those facts to be drawn by the court.
Our statutes have done much towards simplifying the forms of indictments* but the absolute necessity of setting forth the essential ingredients of crime still remains, undiminished ■ by statutory innovation.
. There was no error in quashing ithe indictment, and the judgment of the court below is affirmed.