State v. Clarissa
Supreme Court of Alabama
Error to the Circuit Court of Dallas. The prisoner was indicted for an attempt to poison, by an indictment as follows: The grand jurors for the State of Alabama, empanneled, sworn and charged, &c., upon their oaths present, that Clarissa, the property of, &c., on, &c., feloniously and wilfully did administer to, and cause to be administered to, and taken, by one Nelson' Parsons, and one Hezekiah Bussey, then and there, being free white persons, a large quantity of a certain…
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Error to the Circuit Court of Dallas. The prisoner was indicted for an attempt to poison, by an indictment as follows: The grand jurors for the State of Alabama, empanneled, sworn and charged, &c., upon their oaths present, that Clarissa, the property of, &c., on, &c., feloniously and wilfully did administer to, and cause to be administered to, and taken, by one Nelson' Parsons, and one Hezekiah Bussey, then and there, being free white persons, a large quantity of a certain noxious, and destructive thing, called the seed of Jimson weed, or Jamestown weed, to wit, two ounces thereof, with…
1Opinion of the CourtOrmond, J.
The offence for which the prisoner was indicted, is in the language of the act, an “ attempt to poison” a white person, which in the case of a slave is a capital : offence. The offence consists in the attempt to do an act, which if consummated, would have caused death, and cannot be committed but by the actual attempt to administer a poi-> sonous drug, or substance, calculated to produce death. An unexecuted determination to poison, though preparation was made for that purpose, or the actual administration of a sub*61stance not poisonous, or calculated to cause death, though believed to be so by…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Case of TuckerMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1811
- State v. HughesSupreme Court of Alabama · 1840
3Cited by18 opinions
- Commonwealth v. KennedyMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1897
- Carroll v. StateSupreme Court of Alabama · 1853
- Ben v. StateSupreme Court of Alabama · 1853
- Bob v. StateSupreme Court of Alabama · 1858
- Smith v. StateAlabama Court of Appeals · 1913
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