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322 TRIAL OF JOHN W. WEBSTER.
At the opening of the case, Mr. Merrick rose and moved the Court,
as follows:-
May it please Your Honors,
It is the wish of the Petitioner, that Charles B. Goodrich, Esq.,
should participate in the argument upon the present application for a
writ of error, in connection with his previous counsel. Mr. Goodrich is
now present, and prepared, with the leave of the Court, to render that
service in his behalf.
I, therefore, respectfully request Your Honors to permit the usual
course of proceedings to be so far modified, that after the grounds upon
which this application is made, and the several propositions which we
shall endeavor to maintain in its support shall have been stated and
explained by Mr. Sohier, Mr. Goodrich may be allowed to address an
argument to the Court upon the sufficiency of the reasons set forth in
the petition for the allowance of the writ.
The Chief Justice having signified the consent of the Court, under
the circumstances, to the allowance of the motion, Mr. Sohier thereupon
proceeded to read, first, the Petition for the writ of error, including the
Assignment of Errors and Affidavit, and then the copy of Record of
this and the Municipal Courts, as follows:
Suffolk, ss.
Supreme Judicial Court, March Term, A. D. 1850.
John W. Webster, Plaintiff in Error,
vs. The Commonwealth, Defendant.
And now, John W. Webster, heretofore the defendant in a certain
indictment for an alleged murder, whereon judgment was rendered
against him at this present March Term of this Honorable Court, comes
and prays the Court here that a Writ of Error may issue on the judg-
meat aforesaid, returnable to this Honorable Court at its present term,
on such day as the Court may direct; to the end that certain errors in
the proceedings and judgment of_ the Court on the indictment aforesaid
may be corrected, and that this Honorable Court will cause to be done
in the premises what of right and according to the law of the land
ought to be done.
JOHN W. WEBSTER.
Suffolk, ss.
Supreme Judicial Court, March Term, A. D. 1850.
John W. Webster, Plaintiff in Error,
vs. The Commonwealth, Defendant.
ASSIGNMENT OF ERRORS.
On this third day of May, eighteen hundred and fifty, the said John
W. Webster comes, by Edward D. Sohier and Pliny Merrick, his Attor-
neys, and says, that in the record and proceedings of this Court, in the
case of the Commonwealth vs. said Webster, in which judgment was
rendered at the present term of said Court, to wit, on the first day of
April current, and also in the giving the judgment aforesaid, there is
manifest error in this, to wit:-
1st. That the said Supreme Judicial Court did not acquire jurisdic-
tion of the accusation against him, the said Webster.
2d. Also, that the indictment and the matters therein contained are
not sufficient in law to warrant any judgment against the said John W.
Webster,-because it does not and cannot judicially appear from any
matter or thing before this Court, that the Municipal Court of the City
of Boston accepted or acted upon the indictment, Commonwealth vs.
said John W, Webster.
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