Rasberry v. State

Citations

• 1 Tex. Ct. App. 664

Syllabus

<p>1. County Court—Trial by the Court of Criminal Causes.—Under the act of June 16, 1876, to organize the county courts, a jury, in criminal cases, may be waived, and trial be had before the court.</p> <p>2. Informations.—The requisites of informations, in criminal cases, and the practice controlling them as a mode of prosecution, are prescribed by the General Laws of 1876, pages 20 and 87, and Article 2870, Paschal’s Digest.</p> <p>3. Same.—An information is not invalid because it does not appear to have been made and returned into the court at a regular term thereof; nor because it was not signed by the county attorney, when it recites and purports, on its face, to have been made by that officer, and is accompanied with the sworn complaint made before him. It would be better practice, however, for the county attorney to sign it.</p> <p>4. Aggravated Assault and Battery.—Information charged that the accused beat, etc., one B. with a pestle, which, being used as a club, was a deadly weapon, and therewith inflicted serious bodily injury on B. Held, that these averments were sufficient, in substance, to charge an aggravated assault and battery.</p> <p>•5. Permissible Violence.—Article 2145, Paschal’s Digest, which specifies the purposes for which violence may be lawfully used, is controlled by the next succeeding Article, which limits such violence to the degree necessary to effect the purpose.</p> <p><6. Same.—Being charged with aggravated assault and battery, committed with a pestle the size of a man’s wrist, and used as a club, the accused claimed immunity under the 2d clause Of Article 2145, Paschal’s Digest, which permits the use of violence for the preservation of order at meetings for lawful purposes. Held, in view of the evidence, that the use of the pestle as a means of preserving order was unnecessarily severe, and was not warranted by the Article cited.</p>