Cases argued and decided in the Supreme Court of Texas, during the latter part of the Tyler term, 1874, and the first part of the Galveston term, 1875. Volume 42. Page: 239

1875.] THE STATE V. PERRY. 239
Statement of the case.
APPEAL from Matagorda. Tried below before the Hon. W.
II. Burkhart.
Geo. Clark, Attorney-General, for the State.
REEVES, J. In this case the State appeals from the judgment
of the District Court, sustaining exceptions to the indictment
and dismissing the case.
The indictment charges the defendant with perjury in returning
an inventory of his property, for assessment of the
taxes due thereon for the year 1874, alleging that he made oath
to the inventory, and did then and there falsely, deliberately,
knowingly, and feloniously swear and depose that it was a full
and complete valuation and inventory of his property, on the
first day of January, 1874.
The indictment negatives the truth of the statement without
averring that the defendant willfully swore to the acts constituting
the perjury, or using the language of the statute describing
or defining that offense.
"Perjury," as defined by the code, "is a false statement
' either written or verbal, deliberately and willfully made, re'i
lating to something past or present, under the sanction of an
" oath, or such affirmation as is by law equivalent to an oath,
" where such oath or affirmation is required by law, or is neces"
sary for the prosecution or defense of any private right, or for
( the ends of public justice."
The oath on which the perjury is assigned was made to the
inventory, and in respect to this oath, the indictment fails to
charge that the false statement was deliberately and willfully
made.
The statement in the concluding part of the indictment is
substantially the same as in its commencement, and it is only
by inference or deduction that said statement, in which the
words deliberately and willfully are used, could perhaps be said
to relate to the charge that the defendant falsely and deliberately
swore to the correctness of the inventory of his property
and its value.