Kerry v. State

Citations

• 17 Tex. Ct. App. 178
• 1884 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 195

Syllabus

<p>1. Examining Courts — Jurisdiction of Justices of the Peace.— A justice of the peace is a “ magistrate,” and when he sits for the purpose of inquiring into a criminal accusation against any person, he sits not as a justice of the -peace, but as a magistrate, and the court which he then holds is not a justice’s, but an “examining court.” When holding such a court, his functions as a magistrate are the same as those of the judges of the county, district and supreme court or the court of appeals, when they sit as magistrates to hold examining courts; and the same rules govern each.</p> <p>2. Same — Practice—Evidence.— One of the rules governing examining courts is that “.the testimony of each witness examined shall be reduced to writing by the magistrate or some one acting under his direction, and shall be read over to the witness, or he may read it over himself, and such corrections shall be made in the same as the witness may direct, and he shall then sign the same by affixing liis name or mark. All the testimony thus taken shall be certified to by the magistrate taking the same.”</p> <p>3. Same.— After all the testimony before an examining court has been taken in tlie manner specified, it becomes the duty of the magistrate to certify to it in connection witli “ all the proceedings had before him, and transmit them, sealed up, to the court before winch the defendant is subject to be tried upon indictment or information, writing his name across the seals of the envelope containing the proceedings. The voluntary statement of the defendant, the testimony of the witnesses, and all and every other proceeding in the case, shall be delivered to the clerk of the proper court without delay, and by the said clerk be safely kept and delivered to the foreman of the grand jury.”</p> <p>4. Same — Evidence — Depositions.— Though the State is prohibited by statute (Code of Criminal Procedure, chapter VIII, articles 757 to 772) from taking the depositions of absent witnesses in cr