PETER SMITH, PLAINTIFF IN ERROR,
v.
THE STATE OF FLORIDA, DEFENDANT IN ERROR

Fla. | 1900-06-01
42 Fla. 605 Florida Supreme Court (1900) Positive Treatment
Cited by 10 cases

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Synopsis

Peter Smith was convicted of first-degree murder in Leon County for a homicide where the mortal wound was inflicted in Wakulla County and death occurred in Leon County. The Florida Supreme Court upheld the conviction and rejected Smith's challenge to the statute authorizing prosecution in either county where the crime commenced or terminated.


Holding

The statute is constitutional as applied to homicides where the mortal wound is inflicted in one county and death from that wound occurs in another county. The statute validly authorizes indictment, trial, and punishment of the perpetrator in either county where the offense commenced or terminated.


Key Quotes

“In all cases where an indictable offence shall be perpetrated in this State, and the same shall commence in any one county and terminate in another, the offender shall be liable to indictment in either county.”

Statement of Section 2364 Revised Statutes authorizing venue in either county for crimes that commence and terminate in different counties.

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Facts & Procedural History

Smith was indicted, tried, and convicted of first-degree murder in Leon County Circuit Court. The mortal wound was inflicted in Wakulla County, and th…

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Opinion of the Court
Carter, J.

Carter, J.

At the Spring term, 1900, of tihe Circuit Court of Leon county, plaintiff in error was' indicted, tried and convicted for the crime of murder in thel first degree, and from the death sentience imposed sued out this writ of error. -The indi'ctmlelnt alleges and, the proof shows that the mortal wound was inflicted ini the county of Wakulla, in 'this. State, and that on the following day, the deceased died of said wound in the county of Leon, in this state.

The first and fourth assignments of error are not referred to in the, brief for plaintiff in error. Under our practice they must be regarded. as abandoned.

There' is nothing" in the transcript of the record to show that the court permitted the States Attorney to narrate the State’s testimony before the witnesses had testified to the facts, as contended in the second assignmeint of error. This assignment can not therefore be considered by us.

Tlhe remaining assignments,, the third and fifth, are as follows: 3rd. The court eirreid in sustaining an indictment found in, Leon, county for an offence alleged to have been committed in Wakulla county, though the death occurred in Leon county.

5th. Section 2364 Revised Statutes, of Florida, under which the indictment was dlrawn, is unconstitutional.

Section 2364 Revised Statutes, which was compiled from section 25, act approved November 19, 1828, reads as follows. “In all cases wheirle an. inidiotaible offence shall be perpetrated in this State, and] the same, shall commence in any one county and terminate in another, the offender shall be liable toi indictment in either "county.” It is not denied by plaintiff in error that if the statute quoted is, valid, the conviction in this case ought to be sustained, but it is contended that the statute violates that part of selction 11, Declaration of Rights, Constitution of 1885, which provides that “in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall have, the right to, a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury, in the county where the crime was committed.” We hold til-fat, as applied to cases like the one, wie are now considering, vis: homicides: where tihe miortial wound is inflicted in one county in. this State, and the death from such-wound occurs in another coun ty in this State, the statute is free from the conistitutional objection urged, and authorizes indictment, trial and punishment of the; perpetrator of the homicide in either of said counties. State v. Pauley, 12 Wis. 537; Commonwealth v. Parker, 2 Pick. 549. See, also, Archer v. State, 106 Ind. 426, 7 N. E. Rep. 225; Hauk v. State, 148 Ind. 238, 46 N. E. Rep. 127.

The judgment of the Circuit Court is. affirmed.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Davis v. State, 44 Fla. 32 (Fla. 1902)
    …the indictment. The Circuit Court of Suwannee county had jurisdiction of the crime, if committed in that county, although consummated in another State. Revised Statutes, Sec. 2360; Roberson v. State, 42 Fla. 212, 28 South. Rep. 427; Smith v. State, 42 Fla. 605, 28 South. Rep. 758. II. The second assignment of error is that “the court erred in denying and overruling the motion of defendant’s counsel to strike out the evidence of Mr. Bevans so far as ihe same relates to Mrs. Davis on her death-bed, to the…
  • Park Tucker and Tolbert Tucker v. State, 100 Fla. 1440 (Fla. 1930)
    …he goods himself. 17 R. C. L. 11, Section 11. Also, if the larceny started in Sumter County and was consummated in Orange County, the offender is liable to indictment in either county. Section 7121, Comp. Gen. Laws of Florida, 1927; Smith v. State, 42 Fla. 605, 28 So. R. 758, 17 R. C. L. 45, Section 50. Tolbert Tucker admits that Park Tucker and others were to go to Sumter County to get beef cattle, but states that he did not know of these cattle being stolen. The evidence as a whole shows very conclusiv…
  • State v. Katz, 417 So. 2d 716 (Fla. 2d DCA 1982)
    …), unless section 910.05, which provides that if the acts constituting one offense are committed in two or more counties, the offender may be tried in any county in which any of the acts occurred, is applicable to the facts here. See Smith v. State, 42 Fla. 605, 28 So. 758 (1900).…

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