Case Name: Carter vs. The State
Court: Tennessee Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Tennessee
Decision Date: 1869-09
Citations: 6 Cold. 537
Docket Number: 
Parties: Carter vs. The State.
Judges: 
Reporter: Tennessee Reports
Volume: 46
Pages: 537–538

Head Matter:
Carter vs. The State.
Circuit Court or Knox County. Jurisdiction of, to punish for assaults. The Circuit Court of Knox County may punish a defendant for an assault and battery, where he is acquitted of a felonious assault, but convicted of an assault. The Acts of 1868 and 1860, giving exclusive jurisdiction in ail misdemeanors, to the County Court of Knox County, does not repeal section 5223 of the Code, and oust the Circuit Court of its right to punish, where the defendant is acquitted of the felonious charge and convicted for a misdemeanor.
FROM KNOX.
The plaintiff in error was indicted in the Circuit Court, for an assault with intent to kill, etc. At the June Term, 1868, he was acquitted of the felony, and found guilty of an assault, and fined by the Court. Judge Elijah T. Hall, presiding. The record is filed for error.
J. L. Abernathy, for Carter.
Thos'. H. Collwell, Attorney-general, for the State.

Opinion:
Andrew McClain, J.,
delivered the opinion of the Court.
The plaintiff in error and Rush Pate, were indicted in the Circuit Court of Knox County, for an assault, with intent to commit murder in the first degree.
They plead not guilty — were tried and acquitted of the felony, but found guilty of an assault, and were fined jointly, twenty-five dollars. Pate has made his escape; and the cause, at the instance of Carter, has been brought into this Court by a writ of error.
It is insisted, that, by the Act of 1858, ch. 90, sec. 4, amended by Act of 1860, ch. 120, secs. 5 and 6, the County Court of Knox County has exclusive jurisdiction of misdemeanors committed in Knox County; and that, therefore, the Circuit Court had no jurisdiction to try and punish them for a misdemeanor. We think this objection is not well taken. Section 5223, of the Code, provides, that "any person indicted for assault with intent to kill or to commit any other felony, may be found guilty of an assault or assault and battery, as the ease may be."
This is the law of the land. We do not think the Legislature intended, by these Acts of 1858 and 1860, to except from the operation of this section of the Code, such persons as may be indicted in the Circuit Court of Knox County for an assault with intent to kill or to commit any other felony.
Let the judgment be affirmed.