Donnel v. United States

Pee Cueiam,

Mason, Chief Justice.

Two indictments were found against the plaintiff in error under the gaming act in which his name *142was written Donald. To each of these he pleaded in abatement, alleging that his name was Donnel. Demurrers were filed to these pleas and those demurrers sustained on the ground that the two names were idem sonans. This is the principal error, complainad of.

Courts are not fastidious in enforcing absolute precision in regard to orthography. Names admitting of the same pronunciation are often made up of very different letters. In these cases, a mistake of one mode of…