Opinion
05-19-1899
STATE v. SHAFFNER.
Robert C. White, Atty. Gen., and Peter L. Cooper, Jr., Dep. Atty. Gen., for the State.
Alfred L. Shaffner was convicted of libel.
Two indictments for criminal libel (Nos. 26 and 27) were found against the defendant at this term. By consent, said indictments were consolidated and tried together. The indictments charged the defendant with uttering and publishing, or publishing, certain defamatory statements with respect to two citizens of Newcastle county, implicating them in the election frauds practiced at the general election of 1896.
Argued before LORE, C. J., and GRUBB and PENNEWILL, J.
Robert C. White, Atty. Gen., and Peter L. Cooper, Jr., Dep. Atty. Gen., for the State.
LORE, C. J. (charging jury). Alfred L. Shaffner, the defendant, is charged in this indictment with writing and publishing, or with publishing, a criminal libel, which is very well defined, in 3 Greenleaf on Evidence, to be "malicious defamations, expressed in printing or writing, or by signs or pictures, tending either to blacken the memory of one who is dead, or the reputation of one who is living, and thereby to expose him to public hatred, contempt, and ridicule." Malice is the essence of the offense (Rice v. Simmons, 2 Har. [Del.] 309), and is the wrongful doing of an act with the intention to do harm. Where the libel imputes crime, as in this indictment (that is, the offense of aiding or abetting or assisting in the commission of the false and fraudulent alteration and changing of election returns), malice is implied, and the mere charge carries with it the element of malice. If you believe, therefore, that the defendant in this case wrote and published, or published only, the words charged in this indictment, it would be libel. Publication consists in communicating the defamatory matter to the mind of another, whether it be privately to the party injured, alone, with intent to provoke him to a breach of the peace, or to others, with intent to injure the individual in question, or to perpetrate more extensive mischief. Any such communication thereof, within this county, to another or any others, would be a publication. If, therefore, you believe the words contained in a number of counts in the indictment were written by Shaffner and published by him, or, even if some other person wrote them, if you believe he published them (that is, imparted them to others within the limits of this county), under the law of this state he would be guilty of libel, and your verdict should be, "Guilty." If you are controlled by a reasonable doubt as to his guilt, that doubt should inure to the benefit of the defendant. The facts are before you. The case is within very narrow limits, and it is for you to decide from the evidence whether the defendant, Alfred L. Shaffner, be guilty or not guilty, either of writing and publishing, or of publishing in this county, the language charged in this indictment.
Verdict, "Guilty."