Coates v. People

Plaintiff in error and two others were indicted for murder. A motion to quash the indictment was overruled. Afterwards, he entered a plea of guilty of manslaughter, and the court sentenced him to the penitentiary for the period of ten years.

The first point made is, the indictment is void for ambiguity. It charges that the three persons named, with a stick of wood which each severally had and held in their several right hands, inflicted the mortal wound, causing death. The ground of the objection is, that the act is physically impossible. We can not concur in this view. There is no physical…