102 Mo. App. 680 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1903
The State has appealed from the judgment of the St. Louis Court of Criminal Correction sustaining a demurrer, based upon the grounds that no .offense was stated therein under the laws of this State, and that the statute upon which it was sought to charge defendant had been repealed, being directed against an indictment in the following language:
“The grand jurors of the State of-Missouri, within and for the body of the city of St. Louis, now here in court, duly impaneled, sworn and charged, upon their*681 oath present, That on the 4th day of November, one thousand nine hundred and two, at the city of St. Louis aforesaid, and in each ward and election precinct of the said city of St. Louis a general election was had and held pursuant to the Constitution and laws of the State of Missouri for the choice and election of certain officers of the United States and of the State- of Missouri, to-wit: members of Congress, judges of the Supreme Court, members bers of the senate and house of representatives of the State of Missouri, and other officers, and that then and there at the city of St. Louis at the polling place of the tenth election precinct of the fourteenth ward of said city, one G. F. Ziegler was a judge of election within and for the said tenth election precinct of the said fourteenth ward, and that then and there Paul J. Murphy and T. F. Burke, with force and arms in and upon the said G. F. Ziegler, willfully and on purpose did make an assault and him the said G..F. Zeigler did then and there unlawfully and maliciously strike, bruise, beat and wound; contrary to the form of the statute in such case made and provided and against the peace and dignity of the State.”
Section 80, of an act approved May 31, 1895, entitled “An act to create a board of election commissioners,” etc., enacted at the extra session of the Thirty-eighth General Assembly of the State of Missouri, provided that any person committing an assault upon a judge of election, in the performance of any duty required of him, should be guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment or fine, or by both. Laws 1895, p. 5 (extra session). By section 49 of an act approved June 19, 1899, entitled “An act to provide for the registration,” etc., enacted by the Fortieth General Assembly, the Act of May 31, 1895, was expressly repealed. Laws 1899, p. 179. While the indictment here presented does not literally conform to the language of the above section of the act passed by the Thirty-eighth
Applying the foregoing tests to the indictment before us, and rejecting as surplusage unnecessary averments and descriptive allegations of official character of the party upon whom the assault was charged to have been made, the indictment is good under the general statutes and the demurrer should have been overruled.
Judgment reversed and cause remanded for new trial.