State v. Sly

Citations

• 11 Idaho 110
• 80 P. 1125
• 1905 Ida. LEXIS 28

Syllabus

<p>Criminal Law — Sufficiency of Information — Allegation of Death — Separation of Jury — When Error Presumed.</p> <p>1. An information which charges that the defendant, “at the eounty of Latah, state of Idaho, on the twenty-seventh day of January, A. D. 1904, then and there being, did then and there willfully, unlawfully and feloniously and of his deliberately premeditated malice aforethought, kill and murder one John H. Hays, a human being, by then and there unlawfully and feloniously, and of his deliberately premeditated malice aforethought, shooting at and against the body and person of the said John H. Hays, with a certain gun then and there loaded with gunpowder and leaden bullet,” etc., held, a sufficient averment that the death of the said Hays ensued and of the means by which the homicide was perpetrated.</p> <p>2. The eode has provided for the same liberality in pleadings and the construction thereof in criminal cases as in civil cases, and if the substantial facts necessary to constitute the crime charged appear in the indictment or information it will be held sufficient.</p> <p>3. An allegation that the defendant at a specified time and place did “kill and murder one John H. Hays” is a sufficient allegation that the latter died.</p> <p>4. Where the defendant in a capital ease shows that the jury have separated after having been sworn to try the ease, such fact is sufficient prima facie showing to entitle him to a new trial and to shift the burden onto the state of showing clearly and beyond a reasonable doubt that nothing transpired during such separation or on account thereof that did or could prejudice the defendant in any of his rights.</p> <p>5. Id. — Where the state makes such a showing a new trial will be denied.</p> <p>6. Conduct of officers in charge of juries and the' receiving of mail by jurors commented upon.,,</p> <p>(Syllabus by the court.)</p>