State v. Cross

Brannon, Judge:

Cross was found guilty of murder in the second degree, and sentenced to the penitential, and sued out this writ of error.

He offered two special pleas, which were rejected on demurrer. One sets up that he had been tried by a jury, and found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, and the court, of its own motion, set the verdict aside, and thus acquitted him, and prayed judgment of discharge. This plea is bad. A plea of former conviction or acquittal, called a plea of autrefois convict and autrefois acquit, is, unlike a plea in abatement or other dilatory plea, a plea in bar, is…