State v. Williams

Citations

• 13 Wash. 335
• 43 P. 15
• 1895 Wash. LEXIS 97

Syllabus

<p>INFORMATION—ESSENTIALS—INDIANS—CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS—JURISDICTION OF STATE COURTS—INSTRUCTIONS — EXCEPTIONS.</p> <p>A preliminary examination before a committing magistrate prior to the filing of an information for a felony is not essential under the laws of this state.</p> <p>Under the provisions of our code (Code Proc., §§1239, 1244), governing prosecutions by information, an allegation in the charging part of an information for murder, that the act was committed “ on or about” a certain date, is not open to the objection of being indefinite and insufficient.</p> <p>An Indian who has severed his tribal relations may be prosecuted in the courts of this state, whether the offense was committed within or without the limits of a reservation.</p> <p>An Indian who retains his tribal relations may be prosecuted in the courts of this state for offenses committed at a place not within the limits of an Indian reservation.</p> <p>An information filed in the superior court of a county containing within its limits a part or the whole of an Indian reservation, against a person described as an Indian, need not, in order to confer jurisdiction, aver either that such person does not sustain tribal relations, or that the offense was not committed within the limits of such reservation.</p> <p>Error in giving instructions will not be considered on appeal, though assigned as error in appellant’s brief, when the record discloses that no exception was taken to the instructions.</p> <p>It is not error to refuse a requested instruction that if any one of the jury, after having considered all of the evidence and after having consulted with his fellow jurymen, entertains a reasonable doubt of the guilt of defendant, the jury cannot find the defendant guilty, as the charge of the court must be addressed to the jury as a whole and not as individuals.</p>