State v. Blakeney

Citations

• 33 S.C. 111
• 11 S.E. 637
• 1890 S.C. LEXIS 109

Syllabus

<p>1. An indictment which fails to state the place of death of the deceased, is fatally defective, and this defect cannot be cured by amendment. In such case, the indictment should be quashed on motion duly made, and judgment thereon should be arrested. The'place of death is an essential allegation which the act of 1887 (19 Stat., 880) has not dispensed with, and, under the terms of the constitution, the legislature could not dispense with this allegation.</p> <p>2. Where an indictment fails to state the place of death, this omission cannot be supplied by an amendment ordered by the judge, nor can the prisoner be tried under such amended indictment; for it would not be the hill found by the grand jury.</p> <p>3. Where an indictment alleges that a mortal wound was inflicted upon the deceased “at Chesterfield O. H., in the county and State aforesaid” from which wound the deceased “soon thereafter died,” and then immediately proceeds to charge that the defendant “did then and there feloniously, &c., kill and murder the deceased,” the place of death is sufficiently stated.</p>