Case ID: va_37/html/0503-02.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "SMITH, J.,", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Smith v. Commonwealth.
    December. 1840.
    Criminal Law — Receiver of Stolen Goods — When a Principal Felon — Evidence.—Under the statute oí March 15. 1832, (Supp. to Rev. Code, ch. 187. § 10.) a white person, free negro or mulatto, knowingly receiving stolen goods from a slave, free negro or mulatto, is a principal felon, not an accessory, and so the record of conviction of the actual thief is not admissible evidence against him.
    An indictment for larceny was found against James Smith in the circuit court of Rockbridge at April term 1840, charging that the said James Smith, on &c. at &c. one gold coin of the value of five dollars, commdnly called a half eagle, and one promissory note of the value of fifteen dollars, made by the James river and Kanawha company, (the note was particularly described) of the property of one John Buchanan, by a certain illdisposed negro slave, the property of and belonging to a certain Jacob Judy, and named Nelson, then lately before that time feloniously stolen, taken and carried away, of the said illdisposed negro slave Nelson feloniously *did receive and have, he the said James Smith then and there well knowing the said goods and chattels and property, viz. the said coin and promissory note, to have been feloniously stolen, taken and carried away by the said negro slave Nelson, against the form of the statute &c.
    The indictment in the foregoing- case is founded upon the act of March 15, 1882, Sess. Acts of 1831-2, ch. 32, Suppl. to Rev. Code, ch. 187, § 10, p. 248, which enacts, that “if any white person, free negro or mulatto shall hereafter receive from any slave, free negro or mulatto any stolen goods, knowing the said goods to have been stolen, he or she shall he adjudged guilty of larceny of the said goods, and punished in the same manner and to the same extent as if the receiver had actually stolen the said goods; hut nothing herein contained shall he so construed as to prevent the prosecution, conviction and punishment of the person who actually shall have stolen them, as heretofore.” — Note in Original Edition.
    At the trial upon the plea of not guilty, the attorney for the commonwealth offered in evidence the record of the conviction of the negro slave Nelson, before justices of oyer and terminer of Rockbridge county, for the offence of burglariously breaking and entering the dwelling house of John Buchanan, and stealing therefrom (inter alia) the coin and note in the indictment mentioned. To the introduction of this evidence the prisoner by his counsel objected: but the court overruled the objection and admitted the evidence: to which opinion the prisoner excepted.
    The jury found the prisoner guilty, and ascertained his term of imprisonment in the penitentiary to be two years; and the court rendered judgment accordingly. At the last term of the general court, the prisoner applied for a writ of error to the judgment; which was awarded.
    John W. Brockenbrough for the plaintiff in error.
    The attorney general for the commonwealth.
   SMITH, J.,

delivered the opinion and judgment of the court. — It seems to the court that, according to the provisions of the act of assembly upon which the indictment in this case is founded, the prosecution against the prisoner is as a principal felon, and not as an accessory; consequently the record of the conviction of the negro slave Nelson in the bill of exceptions mentioned could not be used as evidence against the prisoner on his trial. Therefore it is considered by the court that the judgment aforesaid be reversed, the verdict set *aside, and a new trial awarded ; on which trial the said record is not to be permitted to be given in evidence.