Sprouse v. Commonwealth

Citations

• 81 Va. 374
• 1886 Va. LEXIS 103

Syllabus

<p>1. Criminal proceedings—Indictment—Misjoinder.—The joinder of two or more offences in one count is not permitted. But if the whole transaction be only parts of one fact of endeavor, all the parts may-be stated together as one offence—e. g., a man may be indicted for the battery of two or more persons in the same count, etc. And so, an indictment charging in one count the forgery of a check and of the endorsement thereon, is not liable to the objection of duplicity or misjoinder.</p> <p>2. Idem—Evidence—Declarations.—Accused will not be permitted to make evidence in his own favor by proving his self-servient declarations.</p> <p>3. Idem—Admissions—Compulsory.—Where prisoner was charged with forging a check payable to Gibson, and forging Gibson’s name on it, the mayor asked him to write the name “Gibson.” Prisoner reluctantly, but without threat or promise, wrote and mis-spelt it with &p instead of a &, just as it was mis-spelt in the forged writing. This was not compelling him to furnish evidence against himself.</p> <p>4. Idem—Appellate court.—Exception to ruling permitting Commonwealth, after the argument commenced, to introduce a witness, will not avail in appellate court unless the exception shows how prisoner was harmed thereby.</p>