CHAPTER VI. PLACE OF TRIAL. WE have already intimated (g) that the venue in the indictment, or place from which the grand jury who have found the bill have come, is also, in regular course, the place where the trial is had. It is now necessary to ascertain what that place is. The general common-law rule is, that the venue should be the jurisdiction within which the offense was committed; whether such jurisdiction be a county, a division of a county, a district including more than a county, as in the case of the central criminal court, or a borough. To the general rule, many exceptions have been made by statute. [The territorial jurisdiction of the federal courts is bounded by circuits and districts, not by counties. The statutes provide that the trial of offenses punishable with death shall be had in the county where the offense was committed, when that can be done without great inconvenience. 729-731. The trial of all offenses committed on the high seas, or elsewhere out of the jurisdiction of any particular state or district, shall be in the district where the offender is found, or into which he is first brought. When any offense against the United States is begun in one district and completed in another, it shall be deemed to have been committed in either, and may be in dicted and tried in either.(1) The rule in the courts of the several states is that a crime shall be tried in the county where it is committed. There is sometimes a question as to the real locality of a crime. When a thief flees with the property he has stolen, he is guilty of larceny in the county in which the larceny (g) v. p. 263. was committed, and also in every county into which he takes the goods. It is generally held that a thief who goes with the property which he has stolen, into another state, is guilty of larceny in every county of such state into which he takes the goods. It is generally held that a thief who so brings goods into the state from a foreign country is not guilty of larceny in such state.(1) But it is provided by statute, in Illinois, that where property is stolen in another country, and brought into this state, the jurisdiction shall be in any county into which or through which the property may have passed, or where the same may be found.(2) At common law, if one standing in one county shot at and killed a person in another county, the offense was committed in the second county; and, if one standing on land should so shoot and kill a person on the high seas, the offense was committed within the jurisdiction of the admiralty. And where one feloniously gave a mortal wound or administered poison, and the injured person removed to another county and there died, it was provided by statute of 2 and 3 Edward 6-which statute Mr. Bishop says is part of the common law-that the indictment should be found in the county where the death occurred. The criminal code of Ohio provides: Whoever, with firearms, or by sending poison or other thing, or by other means, kills or injures any person in another state or county, or whoever gives any mortal blow to any person who dies in another state or county, shall be tried and punished in the county where the offender was at the time the poison or other thing was sent or the force was used.(3) The statute of Illinois varies from this, only in providing that where the offender and the party killed are in different counties at the time the cause of death is inflicted or administered, or if it is doubtful in which of several counties the cause of death was inflicted or administered, the accused may be tried in either county.(4) The criminal codes (1) Stanley v. State, 24 Ohio St. 166. (2) Rev. Stat. (1877), p. 402. (4) Rev. Stat. (1877), p. 402. (3) 74 Ohio L. 334. of Kentucky (1) and of Iowa (2) provide: If an offense be committed partly in one county and partly in another county, or if acts and their effects, constituting an offense, occur in different counties, the jurisdiction is in either county. In Michigan, where the injury is inflicted in one county, and the death ensues in another, the prosecution may be in either. When a letter containing false pretenses, sent by mail, induces the owner of goods to deliver them to a designated carrier in one county, consigned to the writer in another county, the offense is committed in the first county.(3) The Kentucky criminal code (§ 23) provides that if the offense consists of kidnaping, or seizing or confining a person without lawful authority, the jurisdiction shall be in the county in which the kidnaping, seizing, or confining was committed, or in any county in which it was continued. The Iowa statutes contain the same provisions, stated in greater detail.(2) Some enactments are a distinct enlargement of jurisdiction. In Ohio, a receiver of stolen or embezzled goods may be tried in any county where he received or had the property.(4) In Iowa, when an offense is committed on any boat, raft, or vessel, navigating any water, or lying therein in the prosecution of its voyage, the jurisdiction is in any county through which the boat, etc., is navigated in the course of the voyage, or in the county where the voyage shall terminate. (2) A similar enactment has been held constitutional in Missouri.(5) The statutes of Illinois contain the same provision. (6) In Illinois (6) and Iowa,(2) it is also enacted that where an offense commenced without this state is consummated within this state, the offender shall be liable to punishment therefor in this state, though he was without the state at the time of the commission of the offense charged, if he consummated the offense within (1) 8 21. (3) Norris v. State, 25 Ohio St. 217. (4) 74 Ohio L. 334. (6) Rev. Stat. (1877), p. 402. (2) Rev. Stat. (1873), p. 649. (5) Stuman v. State, 10 Mo. 503. this state, through the intervention of any innocent or guilty agency, or any means proceeding directly or indirectly from himself; and, in such case, he may be tried and punished in the county where the offense was consummated. The Illinois statute further provides that when any offense is committed in any car passing over any rail. oad in the state, or any watercraft navigating any water therein, and it can not readily be determined in what county the offense was committed, the offense may be charged to have been committed, and the offender tried, in any of the counties through or along or into which such car or craft may pass, or can reasonably be determined to have been on or near, the day when the offense was committed. (1) In Iowa,(2) when an offense is committed on the boundary line of two or more counties, or within five hundred yards thereof, the jurisdiction is in either county. In Illinois(1) and in Michigan, (3) there is the same enactment, the distance named being one hundred rods.] (1) Rev. Stat. (1877), p. 402. (2) Rev. Stat. (1873), p. 649. CHAPTER VII. THE GRAND JURY. THE bill of indictment (as yet it is only a "bill,” and is not correctly termed an indictment until found true by the grand jury) having been drawn up, the next step is to submit it to the grand jury. Who are the grand jury? The sheriff of every county is required to return to every sessions of the peace, and every commission of oyer and terminer, and of jail delivery, twenty-four good and loyal men of the county, “to inquire into, present, do, and execute all those things which, on the part of our lady the queen, shall then be commanded them." Grand jurors at the assizes, or at the borough sessions (at the latter they must be burgesses, 5 and 6 Wm. 4, c. 76, § 121), do not require any qualification by estate; at the county sessions they must have the qualification required of petty jurors.(0) At the assizes, the grand jury generally consists of gentlemen of the highest position in the county. After the court has been opened in the usual way by the crier making proclamation, the names of those summoned on the grand jury are called. As many as appear upon this panel are sworn. They must number twelve at least, but not more than twenty-three, so that twelve may be a majority. The usual proclamation against vice and profaneness is read; and then the person presiding in the court-the judge at the assizes, the chairman at the county sessions, the recorder at the borough sessions-charges the grand jury. The object of this charge is to assist the grand jury in coming to a right conclusion, by directing their attention to points which require special attention. He explains the force of any recent enactments, or any not (e) 6 Geo 1, c. 50, § 1. |