Collins v. State

92 N.W. 266, 115 Wis. 596, 1902 Wisc. LEXIS 260
Wisconsin Supreme Court·Decided November 11, 1902·Published·Cited by 13 cases

Opinion

Dodge, J.

The first assignment of error is predicated upon the admission of the testimony of a police officer that, some time after the preliminary examination, Gollins, being on bail, came to him and expressed a desire to have the prosecution settled, saying: “I will give this man his money back. I am getting tired of this. It was a joke, and you can settle it,” — and other remarks of the same tendency. Upon motion [598] to strike out this testimony, the court, overruling it, said: “The jury will remember the former instruction, and consider the testimony of any one of the defendants given in the absence of the others is only to be considered as touching the guilt or innocence of the person so making the statement.” We can discover no merit in this assignment of error. Courts have uniformly held that an offer to settle a criminal prosecution is admissible in evidence, and this holding can be based only upon the foundation that there is a possible inference of guilt to be drawn therefrom, and that the jury are the proper forum, after the transaction is laid before them in evidence, to decide whether any such inference shall be drawn. State v. Rodrigues, 45 La. Ann. 1040, 13 South. 802; Barr v. People, 113 Ill. 471; McMath v. State, 55 Ga. 303; State v. DeBerry, 92 N. C. 800. The language in the present instance was certainly capable of supporting such an inference. The offer to give the money back, and the statement that the transaction had been a joke, might carry the implication that the money had in fact been taken from the complaining witness.

But the attorney for the plaintiff in error especially complains of the ruling above quoted, apparently, as if the court therein had characterized the statements testified to as a confession or an admission of guilt. Such improper characterization of statements made by an accused was discussed in Goodwin, v. State, 114 Wis. 318, 90 N. W. 170. In the ruling of the court now under consideration, however, nothing of the sort appears. He simply reiterated the caution that any testimony given (presumably meaning statements made) by one of the accused in the absence of the others could not be considered against such others. He did not characterize the testimony or the statements as either confession or admission. We fail to see how he could have more carefully guarded the accused from any intimation of his own opinion as to the effect or significance of the transaction given in evidence.

[599]*5992. Tbe statement made by tbe codefendant Marie Gordon, and taken by a stenographer, was offered in evidence, and received by tbe court under tbe instruction tbat tbe jury must not consider it as bearing upon tbe guilt or innocence of either of tbe other defendants. It is said tbat the statement was entirely exculpatory as to Marie Gordon, and consisted wholly of incrimination of tbe other two defendants; therefore it could have no admissibility as to her, and its only purpose must have been to improperly affect tbe jury in considering, tbe guilt or innocence of her codefendants. We appreciate tbe peril to a defendant, tried jointly with others, from statements made out of court and out of bis presence by tbe other accused, but upon joint trials there is no complete escape from this practical peril. Such- statements, when voluntary and containing any element of admission, must be received as against the defendant making them, and tbe utmost protec-/ tion which tbe courts or the law can give to tbe codefendant consists in tbe direction to tbe jury not to consider such statements as to him. Tbat direction was carefully given in this case, and the reception of tbe Gordon woman’s statement was one of the incidents of a joint trial. It is not true, as counsel contend, that it contained no element of admission on her part. It did admit her presence at tbe time of tbe alleged larceny, her participation in the joint orgy then in progress, and tbe fact that she received and bad in her possession certain of the stolen property. We think tbe statement was properly admissible as to her, and tbat tbe court rightly took tbe only step in bis power to render it nonprejudicial to tbe plaintiff in error, and tbat no error was committed, as against him,- in its admission.

3. Error is assigned upon tbe admission in evidence of a stenographer’s testimony as to a statement made by tbe plaintiff in error himself to tbe chief of police in response to interrogatories by tbe latter, in tbe course of which interrogatories there was stated to him tbe general substance of dec[600] larations that bad already been made by tbe two women. Were tbe statements objected to as not having been voluntarily made by tbe plaintiff in error, but as tbe result of at least implied coercion, threat, or promise, its similarity to that held inadmissible in tbe recent case of Bram v. U. S. 168 U. S. 532, 18 Sup. Ct. 183, would demand careful consideration; but an examination of tbe record discloses that such objection was not made. When tbe statement was offered, .defendant’s counsel objected “for tbe reason that it contains statements made by one of tbe other codefendants, which statement has not as yet been properly proven as having been voluntary and free; but as to tbe rest of it there is no objection.” Thus tbe objection to the reception of bis statement or declaration on tbe ground that it was not voluntarily made by Collins was expressly disclaimed. Tbe objection in fact urged to' it, that, in tbe conversation about to be given, tbe chief of police bad quoted to Collins statements of the other defendants, without showing that such statements bad been voluntarily made to him, could not of itself render’ bis statement inadmissible. If tbe accused bad consented that tbe conversation between him and tbe chief of police might be given at all, tbe whole thereof was admissible, — indeed, was necessary, in order to make bis own answers intelligible; and it was wholly immaterial whether the statements from others quoted by the chief of police had been made voluntarily or involuntarily. They were parts of the conversation with this defendant, and were equally the basis of Collins’s replies. This error, also, must be overruled.

4. The plaintiff in error assigns error upon tbe instruction of the court with reference to intoxication as bearing upon the criminal intent. His counsel requested (and to the refusal thereof excepted) an instruction in the following words:

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Collins v. State, 92 N.W. 266, 115 Wis. 596, 1902 Wisc. LEXIS 260 (Wis. 1902).

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