Baldwin v. State

Citations

• 46 Fla. 115

Syllabus

<p>1. Under Revised Statutes, section 2894, the omission of the word “feloniously” from an information for larceny is not fatal, nor does such omission make the information so vague, indistinct and indefinite as to mislead the accused and embarrass him in the preparation of his defense or expose him after conviction or acquittal to substantial danger of a new prosecution for the same offense.</p> <p>2. In an information for larceny the addition of the words “lawful money of the United States” to the allegation of value is neither necessary nor usual.</p> <p>3. When the crime is alleged to have taken place in a certain county, the omission of the words “then and there being found” from an information for larceny is not fatal.</p> <p>4. It is not error after charging that in order to convict, the jury must be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt of defendant’s guilt and defining the phrase “reasonable doubt” to. refuse to charge: “If from the testimony in this cause there arises in your minds, or in the minds of either of you, a reasonable doubt as to defendant’s guilt, you can not find such defendant guilty.”</p> <p>5. In instruction: “To constitute a person a principal in the commission of larceny, the person must have been actually present at its commission” ignores the idea of constructive presence and is properly refused.</p> <p>6. Instructions that invade the province of the jury, single out and emphasize specific parts of the testimony for consideration without reference to other parts and are argumentative are properly refused.</p> <p>7. A charge in a prosecution for larceny that “any participation in a general felonious plan, provided such plan be concocted, and there be actual or constructive presence, is enough to make one a principal as to any crime committed in the execution of such plan,’’ is not error when joined with other charges to the effect that to be convicted of larceny as a principal one must be actually or constructively present at the specific