Case Name: The State v. Sutton and others
Court: Supreme Court of North Carolina
Jurisdiction: North Carolina
Decision Date: 1809-07
Citations: 1 Mur. 281
Docket Number: 
Parties: The State v. Sutton and others.
Judges: 
Reporter: North Carolina Reports
Volume: 5
Pages: 281–282

Head Matter:
The State v. Sutton and others.
From Bertie.
The caption of an indictment must describe the Court before which it is found, that it may appear the Court can exercise jurisdiction over' tile offence charged.
The Defendants being convicted upon an indictment for a riot, their counsel moved in arrest of judgment, “ that in the caption of the indictment upon which the Defendants had been found guilty, there was no description of the Court before which the indictment was found.” The caption of the indictment was in the following words and figures:
“ State of North-Carolina. i . .. Bertie County. J ^ 1 V Term, 1808.”
Cherry, for Defendants,
cited 2 Hawk. 359, sec. 119, to prove that the caption of an indictment must shew that the Court had or could exercise jurisdiction over the offence indicted. He said there was no such term of the Superior or County Courts of Bertie as April term, known, distinguished or described by any public law J for if so, the Court would be bound officially to take notice of it. April term was a juridical term unknown to the laws of North-Carolina, so far as it affected the County of Bertie •, the session of Bef-tie County Court was not holden in that month; and as to the Superior Courts of the State, their terms were fixed by the act of 1806, commencing on the first Mondays of March and September, and ending as the circuits progressed, on the sixth Mondays after the fourth Mondays of the said month.

Opinion:
By the Court.
The caption of the indictment ought to describe the Court before which it is' found, that it may appear the Court can exercise jurisdiction over the offence charged. It is not stated in the caption to this indictment, whether it was found in the County or Superior Court. And although it may be true, that the term of the Superior Court happened in April, yet " April Term" is not distinguished as a juridical term of that Court in any act of Assembly. Judgment arrested.