Case ID: miss_30/html/0408-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Fisher, J.,", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Hiram Jenkins v. The State.
    1. Record : indictment.- — The record must show that the indictment on which the prisoner was tried, was returned into court by the grand jury.
    2. Same. — In a change of venue in a criminal case, the record transmitted to the court to which the venue is changed, must appear to be the record of the proceedings upon the indictment on which the prisoner was tried.
    IN error from the Circuit Court of Jasper county. Hon. John Watts, judge.
    The prisoner was tried in the court below, upon an indictment for the murder of a slave, and convicted of manslaughter in the first degree.
    It appears from the record, that the proceedings against the prisoner bad tbeir inception in tbe Circuit Court of Jones county, and that there was a change of venue from that county to Jasper.
    The transcript from Jones County Circuit Court contained a correct caption to the record, and of the drawing and impanel-ling of a grand jury, and then the following:—
    “ Second day.
    “ The grand jury comes into open court, and Easterbury, their foreman, returned the follow bill,) and consent that the court may alter or a: form, touching no matter of substance therein,
    “ The State -y. murder. Hiram Jenkins.
    A true bi’
    Bennett Easterbury)1 of the grand jury.
    Then follows the arraignment of the prisoner for murder, and the order for a change of venue, and an application for bail; and also the following entry:—
    “ Description of list of original papers sent with the transcript in this case, to wit: — Bill of indictment; defendant’s affidavit, supported by the affidavit of Frederick Hollyfield and Joshua Hollyfield, for a change of venue.”
    The clerk then certifies that the foregoing is a true and perfect copy, or transcript of the record; and that the papers sent and mentioned in the description list, are the true, original papers.
    In the bill of exceptions taken by defendant to the judgment overruling the motion in arrest of judgment, is contained an indictment for murder, purporting on its face to have been found by the grand jury of Jones county. The defendant moved in the court below in arrest of judgment, because it did not appear by the transcript of the record, that the indictment on which the defendant was tried was found and returned into the Circuit Court of Jasper county by a grand jury of that county, and for other causes. This motion was overruled, and the prisoner sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary for twelve years. From this judgment he sued out this writ of error.
    
      Jflvans, McDugald and McMillan, for plaintiff in error.
    
      D. G. Glenn, attorney-general, contrá.
    
   Fisher, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

The prisoner having been put upon his trial for murder, in the Circuit Court of Jasper county, was convicted of the crime of manslaughter in the first degree; and from the judgment rendered upon that verdict, this writ, of error has been prosecuted.

The indictment appears upon its face to have been found in the county of Jones, and the venue changed to the county of Jasper. Nothing appears in the record to show that the indictment was ever returned into court. Nor does it appear that the record from J ones county is the record of the proceedings had upon said indictment.

Judgment reversed.