English v. State

Citations

• 31 Fla. 340

Syllabus

<p>1. Where the county commissioners selected the number of two-hundred and forty-eight names instead of from two hundred and ninety to three hundred and ten, to constitute a list from which grand and petit jurors are to be drawn, the presumption is, in the absence of any showing that they abused the discretionary powers conferred upon them by the statute, that -they performed their duty.</p> <p>0. In ascertaining the meaning of the terms in a statute or a constitution, it is not only proper, but necessary, that recurrence-be had to the principles of the common law from which we derive the body of our municipal law.</p> <p>.3. The language of Section 10 of our Bill of Eights, that “no person shall be tried for a capital crime or other felony, unless on presentment or indictment by a grand jury, except as is otherwise provided in this Constitution, and except in cases of impeachment, and in cases in the militia when in active service in time of war, or which the State, with the consent of Congress, may keep, in time of peace,” was designed as a guaranty and protection of the citizen against a trial in the enumerated cases in the Circuit Courts of this State, except upon presentment or indictment by such a grand jury as was known at the common law,</p> <p>•4. A grand jury at the common law was composed of not less than twelve, nor more than twenty-three persons, and the concurrence of twelve of this number was absolutely essential to the finding of an indictment.</p> <p>5. The fifth section of the act of 1891, Chapter 4015, in so far as it provides that every grand jury shall consist of twelve persons, is constitutional; but the provision therein that the assent of eight of that number shall be necessary to the finding of indictments, is unconstitutional and void.</p> <p>16. The fact that a section or a portion of a section of an act is unconstitutional, does not necessarily render the whole act void. If the legislative purpose as expressed in the valid portion of an