Anderson v. State

Citations

• 18 Tex. Ct. App. 17
• 1885 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 56

Syllabus

<p>1. Perjury — Indictment.— To charge perjury committed at the trial of a criminal cause the indictment must affirmatively show that the court which tried the cause had jurisdiction thereof, and this may be done either by a direct allegation to that effect or by the allegation of facts which manifest the jurisdiction.</p> <p>2. Same — Case Stated.— The indictment in this case charged that the perjury was committed before a justice of the peace in a cause wherein the State was plaintiff and one W. the defendant, and in' which the said W. was charged with “unlawfully carrying a pistol; ” but the indictment does not directly aver that the justice had jurisdiction of said cause, nor does it allege facts which manifest that he had jurisdiction of it, either as a court of oyer et terminer or as an examining court. One of the offenses included in the general charge of “unlawfully carrying a pistol” is not within the proper jurisdiction of justices of the peace, inasmuch as it may be punished by fine of more than §200; and the indictment in this case does not show whether this or some other of the offenses of “ unlawfully carrying a pistol ” was the offense charged against the said W. Held, that the indictment is fatally defective because it fails to allege jurisdiction in the justice’s court wherein the perjury is charged to have been committed.</p>