Case Name: The State v. Thompson
Court: Iowa Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Iowa
Decision Date: 1871-04-24
Citations: 31 Iowa 393
Docket Number: 
Parties: The State v. Thompson.
Judges: 
Reporter: Iowa Reports
Volume: 31
Pages: 393–394

Head Matter:
The State v. Thompson.
Criminal law: murder in eirst degree: indictment. The State v. McCormick, 27 Iowa, 402, and The State v. Watkins, id. 415, holding that to constitute a good indictment for murder in the first degree, it must charge that the killing was willful, deliberate and premeditated, followed. The allegation that the assault was willful, deliberate and premeditated will not suffice.
Appeal from Fayette District Court.
Monday, April 24.
The defendant was indicted at the September term, 1869, of the district court for Clayton county, for the murder of Maria Ilagerty, in December, 1868. A change of venue was had to Fayette county, where the defendant was tried at the June term, 1810, and found guilty of murder in the first degree, and sentenced to be hanged on the 9th day of September following. He appealed to this court, and stay'of proceedings was had accordingly.
S. Updegraff, E. Odell and Noble, Hatch <& Frese for the'appellant.
Jno. T. Stonemam,, C. T. Gra/nger and Samuel Mwrdoek, witb. 3. O' Connor, Attorney-General, for the State.

Opinion:
Per Curiam.
— The indictment in this case is the same in substance and legal effect as the indictments in the cases of The State v. McCormick, 27 Iowa, 402, and The State v. Watkins, id. 415. No conviction, therefore, for murder in the first degree could legally be had under this indictment. It charges the defendant only with the crime of murder in the second degree. The jury have found the defendant guilty as charged in the sixth count of the indictment. For that offense, the highest penalty is imprisonment in the penitentiary for life. Rev., § 4193. The district court could not properly render judgment for any thing more than this penalty and costs. This court is clothed with the power, in criminal cases, to render such judgment as the district court should have rendered. Rev., § 4925. And the attorney-general having moved for the entry of such judgment in this case, and the defendant not objecting, but assenting thereto, such judgment will be accordingly entered, as was done in The State v. McCormick, supra. The judgment appealed from is therefore, at the costs of the appellee, modified and
Affirmed.