Opinion
10-03-1894
KAMPF v. STATE.
Warren Dixon, for the writ.
Habeas corpus to release Annie Kampf, committed for an attempt to commit larceny from the person. Granted.
Warren Dixon, for the writ.
PITNEY, V. C. 1. The complaint upon which the prisoner was arrested and committed was for an attempt to commit larceny from the person. Her request and consent to be tried without indictment and jury were for the crime of larceny from the person. It may well be doubted whether a request and consent to be tried without indictment and jury for a crime different from that with which she stood charged by the committing magistrate ought to bind her, or were sufficient to give the court jurisdiction. I do not find it necessary to determine this point.
2. Her request and consent were declared to be by virtue of the act of March 17, 1868, and were that she should be tried "in the manner and form provided for in that act." That act required the presence of three judges at the trial. In fact only two were present. The act referred to is a special act applying to Hudson county. A later, general act was passed in 1878 (P. L. 1878, 372; Supp. Revision, 184), which authorized two judges to act in such a case. But the prisoner did not request and consent to be tried under that act For this reason I think the prisoner must be discharged.