John Samuel Blackburn

vs

State of Ohio

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This file was contributed for use in the OHGenWeb Ross County county coordinator

Form No. 294.

(Precedent in Blackburn v. State, 23 Ohio St. 147)

(Four counts of the indictment, continuing thus in the fifth, upon which the defendant was convicted:) That the said John Samuel Blackburn, on the said twentieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the county of Ross aforesaid, contriving and intending one Mary Jane Lovell unlawfully, wilfully, purposely, and of a deliberate and premeditated malice to kill and murder, unlawfully, wilfully, and purposely, and of deliberate and premeditated malice, a large quantity of deadly poison called strychnia, to wit, ten grains thereof, with a certain quantity of port wine did mix and mingle, he the said John Samuel Blackburn then and there well knowing the said strychnia to be a deadly poison; and that the said John Samuel Blackburn afterward, to wit, on the said twentieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, at the County of Ross aforesaid, the strychnia aforesaid, so as aforesaid mixed and mingled with the port wine aforesaid, unlawfully, wilfully, purposely, and of deliberate and premeditated malice did administer unto the said Mary Jane Lovell, with the intent then and there that she the said Mary Jane Lovell should take, drink, and swallow down the same into the body of her the said Mary Jane Lovell, and the said strychnia so as aforesaid mixed and mingled with the port wine aforesaid, so as aforesaid administered unto her the said Mary Jane Lovell by the said John Samuel Blackburn, the said  Mary Jane Lovell did then and there at the instance and solicitation of him the said John Samuel Blackburn take, drink, and swallow down, by reason and by means of which taking, drinking, and swallowing of the said strychnia, so mixed and mingled with the said port wine as aforesaid, the said Mary Jane Lovell then and there became and was mortally sick and distempered in her body, the defendant was indicted and tried Court. That court afterwards, how of which said mortal sickness and distemper the said Mary Jane Lovell, on said twentieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the county of Ross aforesaid, died; and so the jurors aforesaid, upon their oath aforesaid, do say that the said John Samuel Blackburn her the said Mary Jane Lovell, in manner and form aforesaid, unlawfully, wilfully, feloniously, purposely, and of deliberate and premeditated malice did then and there kill and murder, contrary to the form of the statute in such case made and provided, and against the peace
and dignity of the state of Ohio-voluntary swallowing of poison with the deceased to take the poison, it

1. In this case it was urged that the voluntary swallowing of poison with intent to commit suicide was not a crime in the state of Ohio, and that there could consequently be no principal in the second degree; but the court held that if the defendant were present, counseling and advising the deceased to take the poison, it was an administering of the poison as charged  in the indictment, and that the defendant was rightly convicted Blackburn v. State, 23 Ohio 180 Volume I. 

Source:   ENCYCLOPEDIA FORMS AND PRECEDENTS FOR PLEADING AND PRACTICE, AT COMMON LAW, IN EQUITY, AND UNDER THE VARIOUS CODES AND PRACTICE ACTS.  EDITED BY W. H. MICHAEL AND WILLIAM MACK UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF JAMES COCKCROFT, AUTHOR OF The American and English Encyclopedia of Law AND THE Encyclopedia of Pleading and Practice. VOL. I. NORTHPORT, LONG ISLAND, N. Y. JAMES COCKCROFT. 1896