State v. Wofford
Mississippi Supreme Court
Appeal from the Marshall circuit court. Adams, J. In this case a recognizance was taken by the vice chancellor, conditioned that James Wofford should appear at the next term of the circuit court to answer a charge of stealing a slave.
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Appeal from the Marshall circuit court. Adams, J. In this case a recognizance was taken by the vice chancellor, conditioned that James Wofford should appear at the next term of the circuit court to answer a charge of stealing a slave. Wof-ford did not appear; judgment nisi was taken, and, on return of' the scire facias, the recognizance was quashed, on motion of the sureties, on the ground that the vice-chancellor had no jurisdiction to take the recognizance, and the district attorney appealed. The law establishing the vice-chancery court, makes the vice-cbancellor a conservator of the peace.…
1Opinion of the Court
Thacher, J.:
The single question presented in this case is, whether the vice-chancellor is authorized by law to take the recognizance of a person charged with a criminal offense. The act of the legislature, establishing an inferior court of chancery in the northern part of the state, (Acts of 1842, ch. 3, § 3,) constitutes the vice-chancellor a conservative of the peace. This is but a legislative iteration of the constitution, which provides that the judges of all the courts of the state shall, in virtue of their offices, be conservators of the peace. Const, art. 4, § 22. "Within the duties…
2Cited by1 opinion
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