This section contains the nature of the case and procedural background.

Three indictments for manslaughter, each containing four counts, were brought against the captain, McVay (D1) and engineer, Grant (D2) of the Steamer Mackinac as principals and against Kelley (D3) as accessory before the fact. The steamer carried several hundred passengers from Pawtucket to Newport via Narragansett Bay. The boiler burst near Newport and many lives were lost. The present indictments are for causing the deaths of three persons killed by escaping steam after the explosion of the boiler. Demurrers, on grounds that the indictments improperly combined a charge of assault and negligence and that there was an improper joining of principal and accessory before the fact, were overruled. D3 also demurred, and the following question was certified: 'May a defendant be indicted and convicted of being an accessory before the fact to the crime of manslaughter arising through criminal negligence as set forth in the indictment?' D3 contended that because the manslaughter charge was without malice and involuntary, he could not be indicted as an accessory before the fact.

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