177 Ga. 414 | Ga. | 1933
The question as propounded by the Court of Appeals, and set forth in the headnote, is answered in the negative. In 14 E. C. L. 196, § 41, it is stated: “Every separate count charges the defendant as if he had committed a distinct offense, because it is upon the principle of the joinder of offenses that the joinder of counts is admitted, and in strict point of law it is permissible to insert several distinct offenses of the same class, though committed at different times, in different counts in the same indictment against
The Penal Code of Georgia, § 954, provides that “every indictment or accusation of the grand jury shall be deemed sufficiently technical and correct, which states the offense in the terms and language of this Code, or so plainly that the nature' of the offense charged may be easily understood by the jury.” The same section prescribes a form for “ every indictment or accusation.” There is no statute in this State which prohibits the joinder of several offenses of the same class or species in different counts of the same indictment. In Davis v. State, 57 Ga. 66, it was said that “two or more counts charging the defendant with the same species of felony may be joined in the same indictment.” In Williams v. State, 107 Ga. 693 (2) (33 S. E. 641), it was said that “even in felony eases there may be two or more counts joined in the same indictment, charging the defendant with the same species of felony.” See also, in this connection, Hoskins v. State, 11 Ga. 92; Williams v. State, 72 Ga. 180; Gilbert v. State, 65 Ga. 449; Doyle v. State, 77 Ga. 513; Sutton v. State, 124 Ga. 815 (53 S. E. 381), and cit. Under the facts stated in the question, all of the offenses charged
The question propounded by the Court of Appeals is whether the indictment was subject to demurrer; and in answering this question we, of course, are not concerned with any question as to the duty of the court to require an election by the solicitor-general as to the count or counts upon which he will proceed, or as to any right of the defendant to insist upon such election, and our decision is not to be understood as containing any ruling in reference to these matters.