Commonwealth v. Glover
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Indictment returned into the Superior Court for Suffolk at May term, 1871, holden at Boston, as follows: “ The jurors for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on their oath present that some person or persons to the jurors aforesaid unknown, on the twentieth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, at Boston aforesaid, with force and arms, a certain building there situate, to wit, the banking-house of the Boylston National Bank of…
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Indictment returned into the Superior Court for Suffolk at May term, 1871, holden at Boston, as follows: “ The jurors for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on their oath present that some person or persons to the jurors aforesaid unknown, on the twentieth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, at Boston aforesaid, with force and arms, a certain building there situate, to wit, the banking-house of the Boylston National Bank of Boston, in the night-time of said day, did break and enter with intent then and therein to commit the crime of larceny, the…
1Opinion of the CourtAmes, J.
The motion to quash rests mainly upon the mistaken assumption that the indictment contains two counts, and was intended for the prosecution of the accessory with the principal. It really contains but a single count, in which the perpetration of a crime, by some unknown person or persons is recited, perhaps with more formality than was absolutely necessary, and then the participation of the defendant in the crime, as accessory before the fact, is properly charged. The use of the “ contra formam clause,” as it is called, in which the act described in the recital is declared to be against the…
2Cited by27 opinions
- Commonwealth v. LewisMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1963
- People v. BogdanoffNew York Court of Appeals · 1930
- Commonwealth v. DiStasioMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1937
- Commonwealth v. BurkeMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1984
- Commonwealth v. O'RourkeMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1942
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