59 A.2d 763 | Md. | 1948
The appellant was indicted by the grand jury of Cecil County for violation of Section 444A of article 27 of the Annotated Code of Maryland. The indictment charges that the appellant, on September 1, 1947, "did unlawfully erect and maintain billboards and other structures, signs, posters and display advertising, either as separate structures or otherwise, and information booths, intended to aid in the solicitation and performance of marriages." Appellant demurred to this indictment. His demurrer was overruled, and after trial by the court he was found guilty and sentenced to pay a fine of $50 from which judgment and sentence he appeals here.
The basis of appellant's demurrer is that the indictment does not embody a distinct accusation of a single crime, but charges the defendant with a half dozen different, separate and distinct crimes, and that the appellant is not protected from a second trial for the same offense, because no one crime of which he is charged is set out with such particularity that it can be determined with what he is being charged. In support of this proposition, the cases of State v. Lassotovitch,
The indictment in the case before us is in the exact words of the statute, except that the conjunction "and" is used in the indictment in such places as the conjunction "or" is found in the statute. The rule is that where an indictment is laid in the words of the statute, it will ordinarily be sufficient. State v.Petrushansky,
The appellant also seems to object to the sufficiency of the evidence, and to the fact that the court, in its memorandum, considered, as part of this evidence, the fact that the defendant, while a minister of the Gospel, is not the pastor of any church, and performs none of the customary ministerial duties except the performance of marriages. We cannot, of course, review the sufficiency of the evidence in a criminal case. Davis v.State, Md.
Since we find no error in the rulings of the trial court, the judgment will be affirmed.
Judgment affirmed, with costs.