Case Name: Commonwealth versus Chester Alderman
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 1808-09
Citations: 3 Tyng 477
Docket Number: 
Parties: Commonwealth versus Chester Alderman.
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 4
Pages: 416–416

Head Matter:
Commonwealth versus Chester Alderman.
A conviction by a justice of the peace, on the information of a party guilty of a breach of the peace, is no bar to an indictment for the same offence.
The defendant being arraigned on an indictment for an assault and battery, and being inquired of by the clerk, whether he was guilty or not guilty, said that he was guilty, but added that he had himself informed a justice of the peace for the county of his offence, by whom he had been sentenced to pay a fine, &.c.

Opinion:
The Court
directed the clerk to enter the plea of guilty alone, observing that it had heretofore been solemnly determined that a conviction of a breach of the peace before a magistrate, on the confession or information of the offender himself, was no bar to an indictment by the grand iury for the same offence.