Ward v. State

Citations

• 83 Fla. 311
• 91 So. 189

Syllabus

<p>1. Trial courts exercise a broad discretion in tbe consideration of applications for continuance of cases before them, and an order granting or denying a continuance will not be reversed by an appellate court unless it is clearly shown that there has been a palpable abuse of discretion to the manifest injury of the party against whom it has been exercised.</p> <p>2. A motion to quash an indictment should be evidenced to the appellate court by the record proper and not by the bill of exceptions. When this requirement is not observed and the motion to quash is not so evidenced to the appellate court, it will not be considered.</p> <p>3. The policy of waiting .until after the trial of a case to attack an indictment or information because of insufficiency in its allegations by a motion in arrest of judgment is not favored. Defects in indictments and informations should be called to the attention of the trial court by a motion to quash or demurrer so that such defects, if any, may be corrected by the1 filing of another indictment or information before the trial of the case is entered' upon.</p> <p>4. An indictment for perjury is sufficient which is not so vague, indistinct or indefinite as to mislead the accused or 'embarrass him in the preparation of his defense or expose him to substantial danger of a new .prosecution for the same offense.</p> <p>5. Technical error committed by a trial court in the reception or rejection of evidence does not .necessarily constitute harmful error. . It is injury resulting from error that warrants an appellate court in reversing a judgment of the trial court.</p> <p>6. A judgment of conviction will not be reversed even if technical errors were committed in rulings on the admissibility of evidence or in charges given or refused where the evidence of guilt is ample and no fundamental rights of the defendant are infringed.</p> <p>7. To convict of the crime of perjury the offense must be proved by the oaths of two witnesses or by the oath