Case ID: mass_80/html/0398-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "By the Court.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Commonwealth vs. Henry S. Magoun.
    The copies certified hy a magistrate to the superior court in a criminal case may be amended by him according to the truth after the commencement of the trial there, and the defendant may be arraigned and tried on the amended papers.
    Complaint on St. 1855, c. 215, § 15, for an unlawful sale of intoxicating liquor. In the copies certified by the magistrate, and produced at the trial in the superior court in Plymouth at October term 1859, the complaint had no signature. After the evidence was all in, Russell, J., upon the motion of the district attorney, and against the defendant’s objection, allowed the magistrate, after examining his original record, to amend his copy by inserting the complainant’s name as in the original; and directed the complaint to be read again to the defendant. But he waived the reading, and pleaded not guilty, not waiving his exception to the previous ruling; and was convicted, and his exceptions allowed.
    
      J. B. Harris, for the defendant.
    
      S. H. Phillips, (Attorney General,) for the Commonwealth.
   By the Court.

No time is prescribed by the Rev. Sts. c. 138, § 2, within which the certified copies of the proceedings before the magistrate shall be furnished. It is sufficient if they are produced before i the defendant is called upon to plead. In this case accurate copies were produced, to which the defendant pleaded anew. See Commonwealth v. Doty, 2 Met. 18.

Exceptions overruled.