State v. Culp

Appellant assigns as error the court’s references to defendant in its charge to the jury as “Plarvey Culp, alias James William Hill,” the names used to designate the defendant in the indictment. Description of the accused in a bill of indictment by whatever alias names he may have been known to use, if done in good faith, is proper and may even afford protection to a defendant if called upon to prove former jeopardy. It is true that the use of aliases may at some times be associated in the public mind with the so-called “criminal” class. For that reason some jurisdictions have held that the…