Case ID: sw_298/html/0590-02.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "CHRISTIAN, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

THOMAS v. STATE.
    (No. 11013.)
    Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.
    Oct. 5, 1927.
    Indictment and information <&wkey;4l (3) — Prosecution will be dismissed, where complaint on which information was based was not sworn to before county attorney (Code Cr. Proc. 1925, art. 415).
    Where complaint in criminal prosecution was not sworn to before county attorney, and county attorney’s stenographer, in his absence, signed county attorney’s name to complaint and information, prosecution will be dismissed, in view of Code Cr. Proc. 1925, art. 415, since a prosecution by information cannot be maintained, in absence of written complaint duly verified.
    Commissioners’ Decision.
    Appeal from I-Iarrison County Court; John W. Scott, Judge.
    John Henry Thomas was convicted of unlawfully carrying a pistol, and he appeals.
    Judgment reversed, and prosecution ordered dismissed.
    Hall, Scott, Casey & Hall, of Marshall, for appellant. .
    Sam D. Stinson, State’s Atty., and Robt. M. Lyles, Asst. State’s Atty., both of Austin, for the State.
   CHRISTIAN, J.

The offense is unlawfully carrying a pistol; the punishment, confinement in the county jail for six months.

Appellant filed a motion in arrest of judgment, alleging, in substance, that the person making the complaint upon which the information was based did not make affidavit to the facts contained therein. The evidence heard by the court on the motion is without contradiction that the complaint was not sworn to before the county attorney, and that the county attorney’s stenographer,. in Ms absence, signed the county attorney’s name to the complaint and information.

A prosecution by information cannot be maintained in the absence of a written complaint duly verified. Article 415, C. C. P. 1925; Thomas v. State (Tex. Cr. App.) 296 S. W. 310.

The judgment is reversed, and the prosecution ordered dismissed.

PER CURIAM. The foregoing opinion of the Commission of Appeals has been examined by the judges of the Court of Criminal Appeals, and approved by the court. 
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