Littlefield
People v. Littlefield
Opinion
Lead Opinion
Bryan, J.
Murray, C. J., concurred.
The defendant was indicted for the commission of the crime of grand larceny; the indictment setting forth that on or about the twenty-fifth day of April, A. D., 1855, the offense of which he was charged was committed. It was also charged that the offense consisted in feloniously taking and driving away three head of cattle. Our statute regulating proceedings in criminal cases has done away with much of the form and ceremony necessary to make a perfect indictment at common *356 law. Under section 246, Compiled Laws, p. 454, an indictment is sufficiently certain as to time if it appear from it that the offense was committed at some time prior to the time of finding the indictment. This fact appears from the record.
Under section 247, Compiled Laws, “ no indictment shall be deemed insufficient; nor shall the trial judgment, or other proceeding thereon, be affected by reason of any defect, or imperfection in matters of form which shall not tend to. the prejudices of the defendant.” It would be sufficiently certain under the statute, that the indictment should charge the defendant with feloniously taking three head of cattle without showing the particular…