Case Name: Commonwealth vs. Timothy Sheehan
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 1858-11
Citations: 12 Gray 28
Docket Number: 
Parties: Commonwealth vs. Timothy Sheehan.
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 78
Pages: 28–29

Head Matter:
Commonwealth vs. Timothy Sheehan.
The record of a conviction transmitted by a justice of the peace to the court of common pleas must be certified to be a copy.
Complaint for an unlawful sale of intoxicating liquor. The record of conviction transmitted to the court of common pleas was signed “ Attest, Sami. B. Noyes, justice of the peace,” without showing that it was a copy; and the defendant, upon that ground, after conviction in that court, moved in arrest of judgment, and, that motion being overruled by Sanger, J*, alleged exceptions.
G. A. W. Chamberlain, for the defendant.
S. H. Phillips, (Attorney General,) for the Commonwealth
cited Commonwealth v. Hogan, 11 Gray, 313.

Opinion:
Bigelow, J.
This case comes within the decision in Commonwealth v. Doty, 2 Met. 18. The record of the conviction of the defendant before the magistrate is not certified to be a true copy. For aught that appears on the face of the paper, it may be the original record. Exceptions sustained