State v. Reese case brief

State v. Reese case brief summary
192 P. 934 (1920)

CASE SYNOPSIS

The State of Washington sought review of the decision of the Superior Court for Spokane County (Washington), which granted defendant's motion in arrest of judgment following his trial and conviction on charges of grand larceny.

CASE FACTS
The State contended that the trial court erred in granting defendant's motion in arrest of judgment on the ground that Wash. Code § 2293 (Remington and Ballinger), which attempted to make the route traversed by a railway train a criminal district and to provide that the court in any county through which the train might pass during its trip was to have jurisdiction over any act committed on the train, was unconstitutional.

DISCUSSION

• The court upheld the trial court's ruling that the statute was unlawful. 
• The court found that: 
• (1) the information in the instant case did not charge that the offense was committed in Spokane County, Washington; 
• (2) the instant action was not one where an act done in one county contributed to an offense in another;
• (3) under Wash. Constitutional art. 1, § 22, one accused of crime had a right to be tried in the county in which the offense was alleged to have been committed; and 
• (4) Wash. Code § 2293 (Remington and Ballinger) went beyond the constitutional limitation, as under the statute, an offender might be prosecuted in any county in through which a train passed, whereas, under the constitution, he could only be prosecuted in the county where the offense was committed.

CONCLUSION
The court affirmed the trial court's judgment.

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