State v. Jay

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Beasley, Chief Justice.

The defendant was indicted for libel, and on the trial the paper containing the alleged defamation was objected to because of certain variances between it and the indictment. These variances are occasioned, in the main:, by words being abbreviated in the indictment, although there are some words so imperfectly written that their ascertainment is entirely conjectural.. The general rule of criminal pleading, when the tenor of a writing is required to be set forth, as in forgery and in libel, is, that the indictment should contain…