conviction upheld for reckless homicide consisting of reckless operation of motor vehicle causing death of another person when death resulted within one year, even though indictment did not allege that death occurred within one year
How later courts described this case
- conviction upheld for reckless homicide consisting of reckless operation of motor vehicle causing death of another person when death resulted within one year, even though indictment did not allege that death occurred within one year
- “reckless homicide” indictment that omitted to allege the essential element of the victim’s death within one year was sufficient because the date of indictment plainly indicated death occurred within one year
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
MARDEN, Justice
(dissenting).
Respectfully I must disagree with the majority opinion on the first point of appeal. Granting that Rule 7(c) Maine Rules of Crim.Proc. “is designed to simplify criminal pleading * * *. Of course, every element of the offense must be charged in the indictment.” Section 7.3 Maine Practice, Glassman.
“When the statute both creates and defines an offense not known to the common law, the * * * indictment must, of course, follow the statute * * *171 Section 21, Directions and Forms for Criminal Procedure, Whitehouse and Hill; State v. Munsey, 114 Me. 408, 410 , 96 A. 729 ; and Smith, Petitioner v. State of Maine, 145 Me. 313, 318 , 75 A. 2d 538 .
The offense of reckless homicide caused by the operation of a vehicle with reckless disregard for the safety of others and thereby causing the death of another person prescribes that such death must be within one year. If the victim of the accident should survive the experience by a year and a day, the statute would not apply. The allegation of the death of the victim within one year from the date of the collision is an essential fact constituting the offense. The omission to charge this fact is a fatal defect in the indictment and the conviction should be reversed. I would not reach the other points of appeal.