Deaton v. State

Roberts, Chief Justice.

The defendant pleaded not guilty, and also filed, under oath, a special plea of former acquittal of the same offense, on a trial before a justice of the peace. The issues under both pleas were submitted to the jury by the court. The jury returned no verdict on the special plea, but found the defendant guilty generally. The code expressly requires, when special pleas are submitted to them, that the jury “ must say in their verdict that the matters alleged in such pleas are either true or untrue.” (Paschal’s Dig., art. 3091.)

In a bill of exceptions it appears that the…