Ex parte Chauvin

Minutes of Superior Court, p. 113, letter F. Ex parte Chauvin. The attorney .general having been previously notified, Mitchell and Bulloch, attornies for William Chauvin, moved the court to quash that part of the presentments of the grand jury of the present term of the Superior court, which related to the said William Chauvin, and which is in the following words, viz : — “ We feel it a duty to present as a grievance, the violent behaviour of William Chauvin to his wife, and his separation from her, conceiving that the example may have an immoral tendency,” upon the following grounds, viz. 1st. That no specific charge of violence or breach of the peace was set forth in the presentment upon which the attorney general could form a bill, against which the defendant could defend himself. 2d. That the names of the witnesses were not set forth in order, that the defendant might know against whom to bring his action, in case the presentment should prove to be malicious. 3d. That it would operate as a sentence against the defendant, without giving him an opportunity of being heard in his defence, when it was probable that upon a trial he might be honourably acquitted. 4. That a bill of indictment has already been found by the same grand jury against the defendant, for the same ground of charge as that contained in the presentment, and an action is now depending on the common law side of this court, against the said Chauvin, by Mrs. Chauvin, for alimony. That as the grand jury requested their presentments to be published in the Gazette, and this among others, it might tend to influence and prejudice the public mind before the defendant could be heard, on cases depending before the court, and fixing a stigma upon him, without, and previous to a trial, in every part of the world where the papers should go, before the real merits of the case could be known. D. B. Mitchell and Nod, for defendant. Charlton, A. G. for state. [MAJORITY — By the Coart.] By the Coart. A presentment being; the notice taken by * , . , , , , a grand jury of any offence, from their own knowledge or observation, without any bill of indictment laid before them at the suit of the state, upon which the officer of the court must afterwards frame an indictment, before the party presented can be put to answer it; and it appearing in the present case, that a bill of indictment has already been, found by the same grand jury against the said William Chauvin for the same ground of charge as that contained in the presentment, and that an action is now depending on the common law side of this court, against the said William Chauvin for alimony, the presentment, which is the subject of the present motion, it would seem, is unnecessary, and its publication might prejudice the public mind against the defendant before the trial. It is therefore ordered, that that part of the presentment of the grand jury which affects the said William Chauvin be quashed, and their other presentments be published agreeable to their request.