{
  "id": 8726928,
  "name": "State vs. Horn",
  "name_abbreviation": "State v. Horn",
  "decision_date": "1858-01",
  "docket_number": "",
  "first_page": "578",
  "last_page": "579",
  "citations": [
    {
      "type": "official",
      "cite": "19 Ark. 578"
    }
  ],
  "court": {
    "name_abbreviation": "Ark.",
    "id": 8808,
    "name": "Arkansas Supreme Court"
  },
  "jurisdiction": {
    "id": 34,
    "name_long": "Arkansas",
    "name": "Ark."
  },
  "cites_to": [
    {
      "cite": "1 Chit. Cr. L. 295",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Chit. Cr. Law",
      "opinion_index": 0
    },
    {
      "cite": "13 Ark. 691",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Ark.",
      "opinion_index": 0
    }
  ],
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    "simhash": "1:9d6d44f23068af2c",
    "word_count": 435
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T20:38:03.385026+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
  },
  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "State vs. Horn."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "Mr. Chief Justice English\ndelivered the opinion of the Court.\nThis was an indictment against Jesse Horn, in the Lawrence Circuit Court, for disturbing a religious congregation.\nThe indictment charged, \u201c That Jesse Horn on, etc., at etc., did, contemptuously, disturb a certain congregation of people then and there assembled, in a certain house known and called Steep Bank Church, for religious worship, by then and there contemptuously and profanely swearing (and by talking and laughing aloud) in the presence and hearing of the said congregation so assembled for religious worship, as aforesaid, and while said congregation was engaged in religious worship, to the evil example of all others in like cases oilending, contrary to the form of the statute,\u201d etc.\nThe defendant moved to quash the indictment on the ground that there were two distinct, separate and independent oifences charged against him in the same count, in this; that he was charged with using \u201c profane language,\u201d and also \u201c laughing and talking.\u201d\nThe Court sustained the motion, quashed the indictment, and the State appealed.\nThe indictment was preferred at the May term, 1856, and was founded on sec. 1, Art. vi, part 8, chap. 51, p. 370, Digest, which makes it an offence against public morals and decency to disturb a congregation, etc., assembled for worship by profanely swearing, or using indecent gestures, or threatening language, or committing any violence of any kind, etc. A disturbance by profanely swearing, as charged here, is an offence, but a disturbance by \u201c talking and laughing aloud,\u201d however impolite, is not made criminal by this statute. State vs. Ratliff, 5 Eng. 530; State vs. Minyard, 7 Eng. 157; Fletcher vs. State, Ib. 169; Stratton vs. State, 13 Ark. 691. There was, therefore, no duplicity in the indictment. The words \u201c and by talking and laughing aloud,\u201d were merely surplusage, and not such sur-plusage as vitiated the indictment. 1 Chit. Cr. L. 295-6.\nThe judgment is reversed.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "Mr. Chief Justice English"
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Mr. Attorney General Johnson for the State."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "State vs. Horn.\nAn indictment (under sec. 1, ch. 51 Dig. p. 370,) for disturbing a congregation assembled for religious worship, by \u201cprofanely swearing,\u201d \u201c and by talking and laughing .aloud,\u201d is not bad for duplicity \u2014 the latter words being merely surplusage.\nAppeal from, Lawrence Circuit Court.\nHon. William C. Bevens, Circuit Judge.\nMr. Attorney General Johnson for the State.\nThe law upon which the indictment is founded, does not make \u201c laughing and talking\u201d in a congregation assembled for religious worship, an offence; and the inserting of those words in the indictment does not vitiate it. The indictment in this case is in the identical words of the statute, sec. 1, Art. vi, ch. \u202251, Dig."
  },
  "file_name": "0578-01",
  "first_page_order": 578,
  "last_page_order": 579
}