In the May number, 1893, we reported at length the trial of the case of The People of the State of Nebraska vs. Ezra M. Buswell. It seems, that in Nebraska there is a statute which enables the State in criminal cases to take certain questions of law arising in the course of the trial before the jury, to the supreme court for review. We are aware of no other State in which the prosecution in criminal cases can appeal at all. That is a right reserved only to the defendant. In Nebraska the supreme court does not render any kind of a judgment, but simply decides the questions of law submitted, and this decision becomes a precedent for similar cases arising in the future, but does not in any manner affect the case in which the appeal has been taken.
Mr. Buswell, therefore, will not again be tried upon the indictment found against him, and upon which his former trial was based.
It may be of interest to our readers to know something of the theory upon which the supreme court proceeded in arriving at their conclusion that the court below erred in one of its instructions, and we will set forth enough to convey an idea of what it was.
