Case Name: THE STATE v. RICHARD PHELPS
Court: Tennessee Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Tennessee
Decision Date: 1877-12
Citations: 2 Shan. Cas. 594
Docket Number: 
Parties: THE STATE v. RICHARD PHELPS.
Judges: 
Reporter: Tennessee Cases with Notes and Annotations
Volume: 2
Pages: 594–594

Head Matter:
THE STATE v. RICHARD PHELPS.
Nashville,
December Term, 1877.
(S. C., 3 Leg. Rep., 282.)
CRIMINAL PRACTICE.
A plea in. abatement ten dering an issue of fact must be tried by a jury, unless a jury is waived. [The jury is now waived unless demanded as provided by law. See Code, sees. 4611-4616, and notes.]

Opinion:
Per curiam.
The prisoner was arraigned before the circuit court of 'Wilson county, upon a presentment for carrying unlawful weapons. lie pleaded a misnomer in abatement, his plea averring that his name is not Richard Phelps — the name under which he is presented; nor has he ever been known or called by that name, and that his real name is Andrew Washington Phelps.
The attorney-general took issue on the plea, and thereupon the court, without a jury, or the waiver of a jury, adjudged the issue in favor of the defendant, and discharged him, and the attorney-general, on behalf of the state, appealed.
'The judgment is erroneous. The plea tendered an issue of fact, to be determined as any other question of fact, by a jury — or by the court upon a waiver of the jury trial.
Them being no jury, and no waiver thereof, the judgment must be reversed, and the case remanded for other and further proceedings.
Reverse the judgment.