United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

McElroy v. United States, 164 U.S. 76 (1896)

McElroy v. United States

No. 492

Submitted October 18, 1896

Decided November 2, 1896

164 U.S. 76

Syllabus

G., B., H., C., S. and J. were indicted April 16 for assault with intent to kill E.M.; also, on the same day, for assault with intent to kill S.M.; also, May 1, for arson of the dwelling house of E.M.; and, on the same 16th of April, G., B. and H. were indicted for arson of the dwelling house of B.M. The court ordered the four indictments consolidated. All the defendants except J. were then tried together, and the trials resulted in separate verdicts of conviction, and the prisoners so convicted were severally sentenced to terms of imprisonment. Held that the several charges in the four indictments were for offenses separate and distinct, complete in themselves, independent of each other, and not provable by the same evidence, and that their consolidation was not authorized by Rev.Stat. § 1024.

Such a joinder cannot be sustained where the parties are not the same, and where the offenses are in nowise parts of the same transaction, and depend upon evidence of a different state of facts as to each or some of them.

The case is stated in the opinion.