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: 14

14 ALLEN v. THE STATE. [Tyler Term,
Opinion of the court.
assigned must have been " deliberately and willfully" made.
(Pas. Dig., art., 1909.) And since its adoption it has been
uniformly held that these or equivalent words are absolutely
essential to the validity of the indictment. (Juaraqui
,. The State, 28 Tex., 625; The State v. Powell, 28
Tex., 626, and eases citing and approving these cases decided
at the last term at Austin.)
The indictment in other respects is not believed to be
subject to the exceptions which are taken to it. The averments
introductory to the statement of the false testimony,
and those which are incidental and collateral to it, such,
for instance, as refer to the tribunal in which the false testimony
was given, and its authority to administer the oath,
the nature of the proceeding pending before it, and its
jurisdiction on the same, are not, it is true, set forth in
the indictment with that particularity of detail whicli was
common in the English courts prior to the statute of 23
Geo. II, ch. 11, and in some of the American courts, where
this or a similar statute is not in force. (The State v.
Gallemore, 2 Ired., 372; Lodge v. The Commonwealth, 2
Grat., 579.) This particularity of statement, however, in
regard to introductory matters, by way of predicate for the
averment of the facts whicl constitute the offense, has not
been customary in indictments of this kind in our courts
even before the adoption of the code, since which all
that is required in charging an offense is that it be set
forth in plain and intelligible words; the obvious import
of which is, if each of the essential constituents of the
offense, as defined by the code, are alleged in plain and
intelligible words in the indictment, it is sufficient. This,
we believe, has been done in this indictment, except as
heretofore pointed out.
The judgment is reversed.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.