State v. Houston

Citations

• 29 S.C. 108
• 6 S.E. 943
• 1888 S.C. LEXIS 113

Syllabus

<p>1. Where the defendant, indicted for receiving stolen goods, claims to have taken them from the thief in payment for services rendered, the value of the goods as compared with these services bears upon the issue of guilty knowledge. In such case, therefore, the judge erred in charging the jury that the goods were evidently of more value than the services rendered ; and this error in expressing his opinion on the facts was not cured by saying to the jury that the facts were entirely with them.</p> <p>2. If a wife receives stolen goods knowing them to be stolon, jointly with her husband and under his coercion, her greater activity in consummating the offence will not, as matter of law, make her guilty. The question would depend on the cause of her greater activity and not upon the fact of its existence. If the husband's influence be. that cause, she is not guilty.</p>