Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1900-06-05
Supreme Court Grants a New Trial in
the Case Appealed by Dr.. Belyea
of Devils Lake.
Defendant Was Sentenced to Three
Years Imprisonment for Perform
ing an Abortion.
Supreme Court Holds That the Verdict
Returned by the Jury Was a
Faulty One.

Inc supreme court OIL the SLaIe mas
granted new trial in the case of Dr..
e. Fl. Belyea of Devils Lake, tried for
gree, in the procuring of an abortion
upon Julia Solberg, in JAM, 1899, and
sentenced to three years at hard labor
in the penitentiary. The case was
argued at the recent term of the SUI
preme court by John M. ECochrane of.
the firm of Cochrane & Corliss of
Grand Forks, for the appellant, Belyea,
and P. J. McClory and Attorney Gen.
eral John F. Cowan for the state.
The case is one of general interest
in the northern part of the state where
DR.. Belyea is well known. The infor-
nation in the case, fled early in jan
uary by States Attorney McClory Of
Ramsey county, charged the defend
1 ant, Dr. Belyea and Albert Sampson
. with the crime of murder in the second
degree, alleging the subsequent death
of the victim of the operation, Julia
Solberg. Upon this information DR..
Belyea was tried. The jury returned
a verdict after twenty-four hours de-
| liberation which the court refused to
accept, but ordered another form of
verdict prepared which was submitted
to them, and which they afterward
agreed upon and returned The syl-
labus OF the supreme court in the case
is as follows:
The information charged, or at
tempted to charge, the defendants with
the crime of murder in the second de-
gree committed by the defendants
while they were engaged in the COM
mission of felony defined by section
1l71, Revised Codes, relating to the
crime Of producing or attempting to
procure the miscarriage of a woman
pregnant with child The facts con-
stltuting the offense defined in section
| flI1 were set out in the information.
Held, that the information did not
charge two distinct and independent
offenses and hence the demurrer there
to upon the ground of duplicity was
properly overruled.
Held, further, that all averments
in the information relating to the sub
ordinate felony were properly and
necessarily inserted in the informa-
ton as descriptive of The major offense
that of murder in the second degree.
| Held, further, that the subordinate
felony defined by section 7177, Revised
Codes, is foreign to and is not gener-
| ally connected with the offense of MUIR
der in the second degree and hence
| said subordinate offense is not neces-
sarily included in the commission of
the crime of murder in the second de-
gree as defined by subdivision 3 of sec
ton 1858.
| The jury returned the following
verdict in response to certain instruc-
tions given them by the trial court and
pursuant to form of verdict furnished
lAC JuAy ny Sdlu COURT. we. JDe
jury, find the defendant, E. H. Belyea,
guilty of the crime of unlawfully pro-
curing an abortion, as charged in the
| information" Held, that such YER
dict is illegal and wholly unauthorized
| In a case where the information
charges the crime of murder in the
second degree perpetrated while de-
PENDANTS are engaged in the commits
| sion of an Independent felony. Held.
further, that the verdict enormously
assumed that the offense referred to
| in the verdict is necessarily committed
! in the commission of the offense of
| murder in the second degree -
| The information criticised with re-
1,speet TO phraseology improperly em-
ployed in charging the crime Judg-
ment reversed and a new trial or
dered. .
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| NEW YORK CONVENTION.