Case ID: la-ann_15/html/0463-02.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Voorhies, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

State of Louisiana v. Slave Solomon.
    A slave cannot be sentenced to punishment after he has been acquitted by the finding of tho jury and the magistrates.
    APPEAL from the Fourth Ward Justice’s Court of the Parish of Morehouse.
    
      Frank P. Stubbs, for plaintiff.
    D. C. Morgan, for defendant and appellant.
   Voorhies, J.

The accused was tried for the crime of murder, and, although acquitted by the finding of the jury and of the magistrates, was sentenced to receive corporal punishment.

The course pursued by the special tribunal, in this instance, is unwarranted in law. A slave cannot be subjected to punishment when he is acquitted of the charges preferred against him. This power is not conferred by the 28th section of the Act of 1857, relative to slaves. Sess. Acts, p. 229 ; State v. Slave Charles, 14 An. 649.

It is, therefore, ordered and decreed, that the judgment of the special tribunal, in so much as it acquits the prisoner, be affirmed ; and that, in other respects, the same be avoided and annulled.