Opinion
01-01-1820
The Commonwealth v. Laurence Linton
Robertson, Attorney General.
The prisoner was indicted at the Superior Court of Law for the county of Ohio of the murder of Joseph M'Caughy: the Indictment charged that the mortal stroke was given at Ohio county, in this State, and that the said M'Caughy died of his wounds in Jefferson county, State of Ohio. The prisoner being led to the bar, moved the Court to quash the Indictment: 1. Because no previous enquiry has been had before an Examining Court, into the facts with which he is now charged, or of the offence for which he now stands indicted; but that so far as he was tried or examined before the Justices of the said county of Ohio, summoned and convened for that purpose, it was for an offence of a different character, and growing out of a part of the facts in the said Indictment alleged. 2. Because the said Indictment charges a mortal wound, given at the said county of Ohio, and that the death of the said Joseph was occasioned thereby, in the county of Jefferson, in the State of Ohio, which facts, if true, do not constitute a felonious homicide within the Commonwealth of Virginia, or punishable by its Laws. 3. Because the said Defendant was remanded by the Examining Court, to be tried for feloniously inflicting on a certain Joseph M'Caughy, sundry wounds, with a plane bit, with intent to maim, disfigure, disable, or kill him the said Joseph, and cannot, under that examination, and decision of the Examining Court, be now indicted and tried for the offence charged against him in the said Indictment. The record of the Examining Court being produced, supported the allegations of the prisoner. Whereupon the Court adjourned to this Court the following questions: " 1. Whether the prisoner, on being charged before the Examining Court with inflicting sundry wounds on the said Joseph, with intent to maim, disable, disfigure, or kill him, the said Joseph, and remanded for trial before this Court, for the said offence, can be indicted and tried for the murder of the said Joseph, on his afterwards dying of the said wounds, so inflicted, without a further examination before the County Court? 2. Can the prisoner be tried and convicted of the murder of which he stands charged under the Indictment, alleging the mortal stroke to be given in the county of Ohio, in the State of Virginia, and the death of the person stricken at the county of Jefferson, in the State of Ohio, a place not within the territorial limits or jurisdiction of the said Commonwealth? 3. If the facts charged in the said Indictment do not constitute a felonious homicide, within this State, and punishable by its Laws, does the subsequent death of the person stricken, at the place in the Indictment mentioned, form any bar to the Indictment, trial, and conviction of the prisoner for the offence of feloniously inflicting on the said Joseph sundry wounds, with intent to maim, disfigure, disable, or kill him the said Joseph, under the decision of the Examining Court remanding the prisoner for further trial before the Superior Court of Law, for that offence?"
Robertson, Attorney General. 1. Admitted, that as the Examining Court merely examined the prisoner on the charge of felonious stabbing, and not for the felonious homicide, he could not now be tried for murder: the whole fact was not examined into: whether the death ensued from the blow, had not been examined into by that Tribunal, and it was a question vitally important, on which the prisoner had a right to the opinion of the Examining Court.
2. As to the second question, the Common Law was, that where a man was stricken in England, and died in a foreign country; or where the blow was given in one county, and died in another county; in the former case, he could not be tried in England for the murder; nor in the latter, could he be tried for it in either county; and Statutes were passed to provide for each case. 1 Hawk. ch. 31, § 12 & 13; 2 Hawk. ch. 25, § 36; 1 Chitty's C. L. 178-9.
3. He contended that the death ensuing in another State, from the blow given in this, affords no bar to a Prosecution for the felonious stabbing here.
OPINION
PER CURIAM.
"The Court is unanimously of opinion, that the prisoner being charged before the Examining Court with inflicting sundry wounds on Joseph M'Caughy, with intent to maim, disable, disfigure or kill, and remanded for trial before the Superior Court of Law for Ohio county for that offence, he cannot be indicted and tried for murder, although the said Joseph died of said wounds, without a further examination before the County Court; nor can the prisoner be tried and convicted of the murder charged in the Indictment, alleging the mortal stroke to be given in the county of Ohio in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the death of the person stricken, at the County of Jefferson in the State of Ohio, a place not within the territorial limits of said Commonwealth.
The Court is further unanimously of opinion, that the subsequent death of the person stricken, at the place in the Indictment mentioned, forms no bar to the indictment, trial and conviction of the prisoner, for the offence of feloniously stabbing, shooting, or disabling with intent to maim, disfigure, disable and kill that person, under the decision of the Examining Court remanding the prisoner for further trial before the Superior Court of Law for that offence."