Brown v. State

214 S.W.2d 240, 213 Ark. 989, 1948 Ark. LEXIS 570
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedOctober 25, 1948
Docket4530
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 214 S.W.2d 240 (Brown v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brown v. State, 214 S.W.2d 240, 213 Ark. 989, 1948 Ark. LEXIS 570 (Ark. 1948).

Opinions

Wine, J.

Appellant was put to trial under an information charging him with the crime of assault with intent to kill alleged to have been committed by so assaulting one Boyd Cunningham, a member of the police force of Camden, Ouachita county, Arkansas. A verdict of guilty was returned by the jury assessing his punishment at five years in the State Penitentiary. From the judgment pronounced on that verdict comes this appeal.

Appellant, in his brief, urges a reversal of the judgment of the trial court for the following reasons:

I. The court erred in overruling appellant’s motion to quash the information.

II. The court erred in overruling appellant’s motion to quash the regular jury panel.'

III. The verdict is contrary to the law and to the evidence.

I. Motion to Quash Information. Pursuant to Amendment 21 to the Constitution of the State of Arkansas,' appellant was tried under an information filed by the Prosecuting Attorney and appellant insists that prosecuting him by information rather than by indictment returned by a grand jury is violative of his rights under both the state and federal constitution. Section 1 of Amendment 21 to the State Constitution reads as follows :

“That all offenses heretofore required to be prosecuted by indictment may be prosecuted either by indictment by a grand jury or information filed by the Prosecuting Attorney.”

This amendment has been successively upheld by this court in many cases. Some of the more recent being Higdon v. State, ante, p. 881, 213 S. W. 2d 621; Washington v. State, ante, p. 218, 210 S. W. 2d 307; Penton v. State, 194 Ark. 503, 109 S. W. 2d 131; and Smith, et al. v. State, 194 Ark. 1041, 110 S. W. 2d 24.

The Supreme Court of the United States has many times held that a state may — if it so desires — provide for prosecution hy information rather than by indictment: Hurtado v. California, 110 U. S. 516, 28 L. Ed. 232, 4 S. Ct. 111; Bolin v. Nebraska, 176 U. S. 83, 44 L. Ed. 382, 20 S. Ct. 287; and Gaines v. Washington, 277 U. S. 81, 72 L. Ed. 793, 48 S. Ct. 468. For a more recent pronouncement on this point, see the case of Paterno v. Lyons, 334 U. S. 314, 68 S. Ct. 1044, in which Mr. Justice Frankfurter, in his concurring opinion said: “. . . So far as the United States Constitution is concerned, the states may dispense with accusations by grand juries, it is for New York -and not for us to decide when the procedural requirements of New York law, not touching those fundamental safeguards which the United States Constitution protects, are satisfied.”

Appellant quotes and seeks refuge in the dissenting-opinion of Mr. Justice Black in the case of Adamson v. People of the State of California, 332 U. S. 46, 91 L. Ed. 1903, 171 A. L. R. 1223, 67 S. Ct. 1672, but the majority of that court held contrary to the views therein expressed by Mr. Justice Black and this court has followed the majority.

II. Motion to Quash Panel of Petit Jurors. Appellant, in apt time, filed his Motion to Quash Panel of Petit Jurors, in which appellant (omitting preamble) avers that: “in order to circumvent recent decisions of the United States Supreme Court reversing convictions in cases in which discrimination as is herein shown has been practiced a conspiracy, common understanding or method has been developed by which one or two Negroes are called whenever it appears that the unlawful method will be challenged. The defendant avers that the action of the Jury Commissioners of the present May, 1948, Term of the Ouachita Circuit Court, in naming-two Negroes as members of the regular panel, is not in good faith as no Negroes have ever been summoned for regular jury service for a period of fifty years, more or less; and as a result thereof all Negroes in Ouachita county, Arkansas, have been denied their constitutional right of trial by a jury of their peers.

“That the total population of Ouachita county, Arkansas, as of April 1,1940, according to sixteenth census, is 31,151,. divided as to the races as follows: white, 16,446 and Negro, 14,697, that the Negro population is more than forty per cent of the total population; that the total number of electors eligible for consideration as jurors is 7,719; that defendant avers and believes that of the total number of electors in Ouachita county, 1,496, or approximately 20°/o of the total number of electors, are members of the Negro race.

“That 32 persons were summoned as jurors for the May, 1948, Term of Ouachita County Circuit Court; and thát the said Jury Commissioners named only two qualified electors in the Negro race; that the said Jury Commissioners and their predecessors, for a period of 50 years, more or less, have never selected from qualified Negro electors, who had been, were, and still are, numerous on the list of qualified electors of Ouachita county, Arkansas, regular members of the jury panel; and further, the defendant avers and believes that the Jury Commissioners either of their own volition or upon a directive of the Judge of the said Ouachita County Circuit Court named the two present Negro memr bers of the panel in order to prevent the present panel from being challenged successfully.

“That the two Negro members of the present panel are exempt from Jury service under §§ 8294 and 8295 of Pope’s Digest of the Statutes of Arkansas.

“That no Negro has ever been named as jury commissioner in the Ouachita County Circuit Court, despite the fact that the Judge of the said Court is empowered to appoint three Jury Commissioners whose duty according to law is to select grand and petit jurors for the Ouachita Circuit Court.

“That there has been now and for a long time prior to a systematic exclusion of Negroes from jury panels despite the fact that the list of qualified jurors are designated by law according to race.

“The defendant charges that this constitutes a discrimination against him, a Negro, and such discrimination is a denial to him of equal protection of the laws of the United States of America as guaranteed by § 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. Petitioner further alleges that due process of law is being denied by the State of Arkansas, through its administrative officers, and prays that the present Petit Jury panel be quashed.”

Appellant’s motion seems highly inconsistent in its various aspects.

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Related

Adams v. Thompson
313 F. Supp. 265 (E.D. Arkansas, 1970)
Smith v. State
238 S.W.2d 649 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1951)

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Bluebook (online)
214 S.W.2d 240, 213 Ark. 989, 1948 Ark. LEXIS 570, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-state-ark-1948.