TaiLexi AI U.S. Case Law

The King v. John Lukens

The King Versus John Lukens

The King v. Lukens, 1 U.S. (1 Dall.) 5 (1762)
Download
Format
Include

Star paging (*137) is kept for pin cites.

Court
Supreme Court of the United States
Decided
April 1, 1762
Citations
1 U.S. 51 Dall. 5
Cited by 5 Original from court
Summary
INDICTMENT for a Nuisance.— moved that a Prosecutor should be indorsed on the Indictment, agreeably to the Act of Assembly, * before the Defendant should be put to plead.— urged that such a Construction ought to put on the Act as that public Justice may not be eluded; and that there should be no Necessity to indorse a Prosecutor, unless it be proved that there is some person active in carrying on a Prosecution; because, if it took its rise from the Grand jury, or a Justice of the Peace, no Person could be indorsed; and Offenders, of the highest Nature, would escape being brought to Justice.

Syllabus and headnotes are prepared by the reporter or publisher, not the court, and are not part of the opinion.

Opinion

By the Court.

It often happens that all the Witnesses necessary to support a public Prosecution are brought unwillingly to give Evidence; and the Act could never intend there should be a Prosecutor indorsed, *6 unless there was really a Prosecutor existing, for the Words in the Act are, the Prosecutor.

And as no Person in the present Case is proved to be active in carrying on the Prosecution, the Defendant must plead to the Indictment without any Indorsement.

It was then moved, that the Defendant himself might be sworn to prove the Person prosecuting; but denied by the Court, who said it must be proved by indifferent Witnesses.

How later courts describe this case

No later court has written an explanatory parenthetical about this case yet.

Cited by 5 cases

View all citing references →
1900: 11929: 11961: 11992: 12014: 119002026peak 1900 · 1

Relies on it most ⓘ

  1. Ferguson v. Georgia365 U.S. 570 (1961)
  2. United States v. Dexter Andre Davis974 F.2d 182 (D.C. Cir. 1992)
  3. Commonwealth v. New Bethlehem Borough15 Pa. Super. 158 (1900)
  4. Commonwealth v. Brown, K.No. 1364 EDA 2013 (Pa. Super. Ct. Aug. 28, 2014)
  5. Commonwealth v. Zavaglia12 Pa. D. & C. 529 (Schuylkill Cty. Ct. Qtr. Sess. 1929)

Most recent

  1. Commonwealth v. Brown, K.No. 1364 EDA 2013 (Pa. Super. Ct. Aug. 28, 2014)
  2. United States v. Dexter Andre Davis974 F.2d 182 (D.C. Cir. 1992)
  3. Ferguson v. Georgia365 U.S. 570 (1961)
  4. Commonwealth v. Zavaglia12 Pa. D. & C. 529 (Schuylkill Cty. Ct. Qtr. Sess. 1929)
  5. Commonwealth v. New Bethlehem Borough15 Pa. Super. 158 (1900)

Citing references are not a citator: they show that a later opinion cites this case, not whether it followed, distinguished, or overruled it. Check negative history before relying on this case.

Authorities cited 0

No citations to other opinions in this database were found.

Keyboard shortcuts

/Focus the search box
j kNext / previous result
EnterOpen the selected result
xAdd / remove the selected result from the download list
n pNext / previous search term in a case
cCopy the citation of the current case
+ −Larger / smaller reading text
?Show this list