Commonwealth v. Ismahl
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Indictment in two counts: the first count charged the defendant, under the Pub. Sts. c. 101, §§ 6, 7, with keeping and maintaining a certain common nuisance, to wit, a tenement used as a house of ill-fame; and the second count, at common law, charged her with maintaining a disorderly house, during the same times charged in the first count.
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Indictment in two counts: the first count charged the defendant, under the Pub. Sts. c. 101, §§ 6, 7, with keeping and maintaining a certain common nuisance, to wit, a tenement used as a house of ill-fame; and the second count, at common law, charged her with maintaining a disorderly house, during the same times charged in the first count. In the Superior Court, before the jury was empanelled, the defendant moved to quash the indictment for the following reasons, among others: “1. The matter set forth in said indictment is not sufficient in law, for that the indictment purports to be a.…
1Opinion of the CourtDevens, J.
The exceptions taken by the defendant are well settled by decisions, the authority of which we have no disposition to question.
There was no misjoinder of counts; as the offences charged therein were of the same nature, they might properly be included in one indictment. Commonwealth v. Kimball, 7 Gray, 328. Commonwealth v. Davenport, 2 Allen, 299.
Nor was it necessary to aver that the different counts were different descriptions of the same act. The St. of 1861, o. 181, (Pub. Sts. c. 213, § 18,) was not intended to impose new restrictions upon the criminal pleader, but to enable him to join…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Commonwealth v. AdamsMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1879
3Cited by10 opinions
- Attorney General v. PelletierMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1922
- Commonwealth v. GreenbergMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1959
- Commonwealth v. RogersMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1902
- Commonwealth v. DowMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1914
- Commonwealth v. ThompsonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1893
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