Hodnett v. State

Citations

• 66 Miss. 26

Syllabus

<p>1. Carrying Concealed Weapons. Ex post facto law. Act of March 9, 1888.</p> <p>The act of the legislature approved March 9, 1888, entitled “ an act to amend $ 2985 of the code 1880 in reference to carrying concealed weapons ” (Acts 1888, p. 89), is ex post facto and void as to offenses committed prior to its passage.</p> <p>2. Repeal by Ex Post Facto Law.</p> <p>Though ex post facto, said act repealed so much of $ 2985 of the code of 1880 •as fixed the penalty for carrying concealed weapons and prescribed a new and severer punishment. Its effect was that carrying concealed weapons prior to its passage was no longer punishable under the laws of this state.</p> <p>S. Indictment. Repealed statute.</p> <p>Accordingly, an indictment in May, 1888, which alleges carrying a concealed weapon in January, 1888, charges no offense, and should be quashed.</p> <p>4. Such Law hot Aided by Statute of Jeofails.</p> <p>Such indictment is not aided or relieved by virtue of l 3013, of code 1880, which provides that, “ no indictment for any offense shall be held insufficient for omitting to state the time at which the offense was committed, in any case, where time is not of the essence of the offense, nor for stating the time imperfectly, nor stating the offense to have been committed on a day subsequent to the finding of the indictment, or on an impossible day, or on a day that never happened.” Such an act cannot create an offense where none otherwise exists.</p> <p>5. Same. Indictment.</p> <p>An indictment which charges that the act was committed at a time when there was no law making it punishable is fatally defective.</p> <p>6. Same. Essence of offense, what is.</p> <p>The essence of an offense is some essential element or constituent without which it would not be an offense.</p> <p>7. Same. lime is of essence, when.</p> <p>Where an indictment for carrying concealed weapons has been found since the date of the said act March 9, 1888, time is of the essence of the offense, because