Bass v. State

36 N.E. 124, 136 Ind. 165, 1894 Ind. LEXIS 132
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 10, 1894
DocketNo. 16,967
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 36 N.E. 124 (Bass v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bass v. State, 36 N.E. 124, 136 Ind. 165, 1894 Ind. LEXIS 132 (Ind. 1894).

Opinion

Coffey, J.

At the September term, 1891, of the Lawrence Circuit Court, the grand jury of that county returned an indictment ágainst the appellant, Curtis Bass, charging him with an assault and battery upon one William H. Tow, with the intent to commit the crime of murder.

A trial of the cause by jury resulted in a verdict finding the appellant guilty as charged, upon which verdict the court, over a motion for a new trial, rendered judgment.

To reverse the judgment thus rendered, this appeal is prosecuted.

The indictment charges that “Curt. Bass, late of said county, on the 21st day of August, A. D. 1891, at said county and State aforesaid, did then and there feloni[167]*167ously, purposely and with premeditated malice, and in a rude, insolent, and angry manner, touch, bruise, lacerate and wound the body and person of William H. Tow, by then and there feloniously, purposely and with premeditated malice shooting off and discharging at and against the said Tow a certain shotgun then and there loaded with gunpowder and leaden shot and slugs, with the intent then and there and thereby him, the said Tow, feloniously, purposely and with premeditated malice, to kill and murder.”

This, we think, is a good indictment for assault and battery with intent to commit the crime of murder in the first degree, and for this reason the circuit court did not err in overruling the appellant’s motion in arrest of judgment, based upon the insufficiency of the indictment.

The evidence tends to support the verdict of the jury, and for this reason we are not at liberty to disturb it on the claim made by the appellant that his motion for a new trial should have been sustained for want of evidence to support the verdict.

This case was tried twice in the Lawrence Circuit Court, the jury having failed to agree upon a verdict at the first trial. At the first trial, D. O. Spencer acted as the official reporter, and took down, in shorthand, the evidence of the injured party, William H. Tow. ' Subsequently, with the assistance of his daughter, Mr. Spencer made a typewritten transcript of this evidence, compared it with his shorthand notes, and was able to, and did, testify that the typewritten transcript was correct. Between the dates of the first and second trials of the cause, Tow departed this life, and upon proof of that fact the circuit court permitted Spencer to read to the jury, from the typewritten transcript, certain portions of the evidence of Tow on the former trial of the cause, to which action and ruling of the court the appellant excepted.

[168]*168Numerous objections to this ruling are ably urged in this court by the appellant’s learned counsel.

It is contended:

First. That the witness can only use the notes made at the former trial of the cause for the purpose of refreshing his memory, and that after his memory is thus refreshed he must be able to state from his recollection what the deceased witness testified on the former trial.

Second. That the type-written transcript, not being a paper prepared at the time of the former' trial, the witness had no right to refer to it for the purpose of refreshing his recollection.

Third. That the whole testimony of the deceased witness should have been read to the jury, if any was admissible, and that it was error to permit a part only to be read.

Fourth. That the fact that a former trial of the cause had taken place, should have been proved by the record before the testimony of the deceased witness was admissible.

Mr. Wharton, in his work on Criminal Evidence (9th ed.), section 227, says: “To the rule excluding hearsay the first exception we have to notice is the following: What a deceased witness testified to on a former procedure against the same defendant, for the same offense as that under trial, or for an offense substantially the same, may be proved by witnesses who heard the testimony of the witness. * * * What a witness, since dead, has sworn upon a trial between the same parties may be given in evidence, either from the judge’s notes, or from notes that have been taken by any other person who will swear to their accuracy; or the former evidence may be proved by any person who will swear from his memory to its having been given.”

While there is much authority for appellant’s conten[169]*169tion, the weight of authority does not, in our opinion, sustain the'appellant in his position that notes of the evidence taken at the trial of a cause can. only be used by a witness for the purpose of refreshing his recollection. The great weight of authority is, we think, that where the testimony of a deceased witness has been taken in writing, or where notes of the evidence have been taken by the judge or any one else who can testify to their correctness, or where the evidence has been taken by an official shorthand reporter, such evidence or notes may be read in evidence on a subsequent trial between the same parties. Marler v. State, 67 Ala. 55, 42 Am. Rep. 95; Reynold’s Stephens on Evidence, 181; Insurance Co. v. Weide, 9 Wall. 677; Ruch v. Rock Island, 97 U. S. 693; Halsey v. Sinsebaugh, 15 N. Y. 485.

In the case of Sage v. State, 127 Ind. 15, it was said by this court: "No error was committed in permitting the official stenographer to read from his report of the testimony of a witness given on a former trial, who had since died.”

It was further said in that case that there is much reason for a distinction between an official stenographer, when called as a witness in a case like this, and an ordinary witness. We must know, as a matter of common knowledge that stenography is not generally taught in our common schools, and that but few persons, comparatively, are able to read the shorthand notes.

When seeking to ascertain the testimony of a deceased witness, it is desirable that such testimony should be exactly reproduced if it is possible to -do so. When the official stenographer is called for that purpose, his shorthand notes must be translated, either by himself or some one else who is able to do so. It being necessary that they should be translated, we 'think it wholly immaterial •whether it is done orally or in writing:

[170]*170In this case it was done in writing. There is no claim that it was not done correctly. We think the court did not err in permitting Spencer to read a transcript of the evidence of the deceased witness named, unless some one of the other objections urged against its admission can be sustained.

What we have already said disposes of the second objection made by the appellant to the admissibility of this evidence.

Of the third objection urged to its admissibility,we may say that we have no means of knowing the character of the evidence of the deceased witness, which was omitted in the reading.

It appears from the record, that the court decided it was not competent evidence on this trial of the cause. The contrary not appearing, we must presume that the circuit court did not error in this ruling.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Brown v. State
728 N.E.2d 876 (Indiana Supreme Court, 2000)
Smith v. State
403 N.E.2d 869 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1980)
Mason v. State
392 N.E.2d 806 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1979)
McMinoway v. State
294 N.E.2d 803 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1973)
Short v. State
237 N.E.2d 258 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1968)
Tyler v. State
236 N.E.2d 815 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1968)
Beaty v. Donaldson
200 N.E.2d 233 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1964)
Gernhart v. State
120 N.E.2d 265 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1954)
Beeler v. State
104 N.E.2d 744 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1952)
Sekularac v. State
185 N.E. 898 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1933)
Heyverests v. State
174 N.E. 710 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1931)
State v. Smith
190 P. 107 (Montana Supreme Court, 1920)
Koehler v. State
123 N.E. 111 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1919)
In re the Transfer Tax upon the Estate of Martin
16 Mills Surr. 286 (New York Surrogate's Court, 1916)
Levi v. State
104 N.E. 765 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1914)
Wilson v. State
93 N.E. 609 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1911)
Pichon v. Martin
73 N.E. 1009 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1905)
Bloch v. State
68 N.E. 287 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1903)
Musser v. State
61 N.E. 1 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1901)
Higgins v. State
60 N.E. 685 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1901)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
36 N.E. 124, 136 Ind. 165, 1894 Ind. LEXIS 132, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bass-v-state-ind-1894.