162 S.E. 317 | W. Va. | 1932
Defendant, Lee Overholt, was indicted, tried and convicted in Greenbrier county under chapter 152, section 8, Code 1923 (
The statute provides that "an accessory, either before or after the fact, may, whether the principle felon be convicted or not, or be amenable to justice or not, be indicted, convicted, and punished in the county in which he became accessory, or in which the principal felon might be indicted. Any such accessory before the fact may be indicated either with such principal or separately."
The chief assignment of error is that the trial of defendant in Greenbrier county for accessorial acts committed in Pocahontas county, (notwithstanding the statute) is in violation of Article III, section 14 of the state constitution, which provides: "Trials of crime, and misdemeanors, unless herein otherwise provided, shall be by a jury of twelve men, public, without unreasonable delay, and in the county where thealleged offense was committed, unless upon petition of the accused, and for good cause shown, it is removed to some other county." By reason of this constitutional provision, all crimes must be tried in the county in which they are committed. *419 State v. Lowe,
The judgment is, therefore, reversed and the indictment dismissed.
Judgment reversed; indictment dismissed.