Tackett v. State
Tennessee Supreme Court
If a warrant commanding the arrest of an individual in the name of the state have no seal, it is void. If an officer attempt to arrest the party named upon such authority, he proceeds at his peril, and is a wrong doer; and if he be killed in the attempt by the party, the slayer is guilty of manslaughter, and not murder.
Read the full summary
If a warrant commanding the arrest of an individual in the name of the state have no seal, it is void. If an officer attempt to arrest the party named upon such authority, he proceeds at his peril, and is a wrong doer; and if he be killed in the attempt by the party, the slayer is guilty of manslaughter, and not murder. The defendant was indicted at the June term 1830, of the circuit court of Tipton county, for the murder of Thomas Mitchel, and was found guilty by the jury, and sentence of death pronounced upon him; he appealed in error to this court. The facts proved, and necessary to be…
1Opinion of the CourtPeck, J.
In the case before us, though several points are made, they all resolve themselves into one; and that is, supposing the warrant as it is called to have been properly in the hands of the deceased, and that he was an officer with authority to have made the arrest attempted on the prisoner, with a sufficient process, was the one in his hands illegal for the want of a seal?
The authorities amply sustain the position of the counsel for the prisoner, that a warrant commanding an arrest on behalf of the state not having the magistrate’s seal, is void. 2 Inst. 52, 591. Salkeld, 174. 1 Hale, 577. 2…
2Cited by3 opinions
- Lenarcie v. StateCuyahoga Circuit Court · 1907
- State of Tennessee v. Jay Junior HeifnerCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee · 2026
- State of Tennessee v. Jay Junior HeifnerCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee · 2025