194 Ind. 118 | Ind. | 1923
Appellants were separately charged by affidavit, tried and convicted in the court below of escaping from the State Farm, in violation of §1 of Acts 1915 p. 338, §2406a Burns' Supp. 1921. The separate motion of each for a new trial was overruled and judgment in accordance with the finding in each case. These cases were tried the same day, in the same court, before the same judge, and submitted on the same evidence.
Each of these appellants separately assigned error on the overruling of their separate motions for a new trial. Their only insistence here is that the evidence is insufficient to support the decision of the trial court. They each defended on the ground that they had permission to leave the farm for a day from an officer of the institution who, they in good faith believed, had authority to grant such permission.
Appellants and one other person, a prisoner on the farm, testified to practically the same facts pertaining
The evidence shows that Neal’s term of imprisonment had three days only to run and that he'had arranged to pay the fine and costs adjudged against him. We are not advised as to the unserved time of imprisonment of appellant Wiggins, but it does appear that “for some time prior to” September 17, he had been an inmate on the farm and had earned the position of “a trusty”, and on Saturday night before the Sunday in question, he had acted as dormitory guard of a certain ward. This evidence is uncontradicted. ■Hence, it seems strange that any one with any mind at all would leave the farm without permission and thus subject himself to a charge for so doing carrying a penalty of not less than two years and not more than five years in the State Prison. Both appellants testified that they had permission from Curry to leave the farm for the day and that they had no intention of escaping
Counsel for appellants assert that there is no evidence of intention on the part of these appellants to escape. The statute, §2406a, supra, provides: “That any person sentenced to the Indiana State Farm who shall escape therefrom * * * shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and, upon conviction, shall be sentenced. * * *” The word “escape” as used in this statute means to go away from or enjoy immunity from imprisonment without permission of some one in authority. This statute prohibits under penalty the doing of a specific act, or, we may say, it defines a crime and fixes the punishment, but it does not make criminal intent an essential element thereof. Hence, if appellants, upon their own volition alone, and the trial court must have so found, left the farm while under sentence of imprisonment, such act being by statute prohibited, it was unlawful, and being unlawful, intent would be inferred from the fact of their leaving. Hood v. State (1877), 56 Ind. 263, 275, 26 Am. Rep. 21; State v. Mainey (1879), 65 Ind. 404, 408; Mercer v. Corbin (1889), 117 Ind. 450, 3 L. R. A. 221, 10 Am. Rep. 76; Rock v. State (1915), 185 Ind. 51; Gillett, Criminal Law §3; 8 R. C. L. 62, §12.
The conclusion of this court upon the credibility of witnesses and upon conflicting evidence is unimportant, for it is not our province to pass upon and determine such matters. In the absence of such authority, which is essentially necessary in these cases, we cannot disturb the judgment in either
Each of the judgments in the above entitled causes is therefore affirmed.
Townsend, J., absent.