Case Name: W. W. Pierce v. The State
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Texas
Decision Date: 1883-06-06
Citations: 14 Tex. Ct. App. 365
Docket Number: No. 2693
Parties: W. W. Pierce v. The State.
Judges: 
Reporter: Texas Court of Appeals Reports
Volume: 14
Pages: 365–366

Head Matter:
[No. 2693.]
W. W. Pierce v. The State.
1. Indictment—Jurisdiction of the Court oe Appeals—Practice.— The transcript in a criminal ease bringing up neither indictment nor information, and the clerk of the court below certifying in answer to certiorari that none could be found in his office, the Assistant Attorney- General moves to dismiss the appeal because of the incomplete record. Held,. that the motion to dismiss is not well taken, inasmuch as it is not the indictment, but the notice of appeal, recognizance, and judgment of conviction which confer jurisdiction upon this court.
2. Practice—Judgment.—Without an indictment or information in a criminal case, there is no basis for a judgment of conviction, and the whole proceeding therein is a nullity requiring reversal of the conviction and dismissal of the prosecution. If an indictment or information had-existed at one time but had been lost, stolen or destroyed, the proper practice would require its substitution as provided by law.
Appeal from the County Court of Bosque. Tried below before the Hon. B. G-. Childress, County Judge.
As far as can be ascertained from the transcript in this case, the appellant was convicted for carrying a pistol into a public assembly, and was fined in the sum of fifty dollars. The transcript brings up neither indictment, information, statement of facts, nor assignment of errors.
Ho brief for the appellant.
J. H. Burts, Assistant Attorney General, for the State.

Opinion:
Willson, Judge.
In the record sent up on appeal there is no indictment or information. At a former day of this term a certiorari was awarded, upon motion of the Assistant Attorney General, to perfect the record, which has been answered by the clerk of the County Court of Bosque county (the court which rendered the judgment appealed from) that he can find no indictment or information belonging to this case in his office.
A motion to dismiss the appeal because of the incomplete record is submitted by the Assistant Attorney General, which motion we must overrule, because it is the notice of appeal and the defendant's recognizance, together with the judgment of conviction, which confer upon this court jurisdiction, and not the indictment or information. Without an indictment or information there is no legal basis for the judgment, and the whole proceeding is a nullity. If the indictment or information at one time existed and had been lost, stolen or destroyed, it should have been substituted as provided by law.
As the record before us shows a conviction having no legal foundation, the judgment is reversed and the prosecution dismissed.
Reversed and dismissed.
Opinion delivered June 6, 1883.