Dawson v. State

180 S.W. 761, 121 Ark. 211, 1915 Ark. LEXIS 483
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedNovember 29, 1915
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 180 S.W. 761 (Dawson 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
Dawson v. State, 180 S.W. 761, 121 Ark. 211, 1915 Ark. LEXIS 483 (Ark. 1915).

Opinion

Wood, J.,

(after stating the facts). (1) Appellant contends that the grand jury, under the original orders of the court convening .and empanelling the same, had authority only to investigate charges .against parties confined in jail. The order of the court showed that the appellant was indicted not at a special term of the court called by the circuit judge in vacation, under the authority of sections 1532 et seq. of Kirby’s Digest, but at .a regular adjourned term of the circuit court, sitting in regular session, .and under the authority of section 2219 of Kirby’s Digest, which provides: “If any offense be committed or discovered during the sitting of any court after the grand jury attending such court shall have been discharged, such court may, in its discretion, by an order to be entered in the minutes, direct the sheriff to .summon a special grand jury, * * * who shall be returned and sworn, and .shall proceed in the ¡same manner in all respects as provided by law in respect to other grand jurors.”

The grand jury empanelled under the authority of the latter section would have been authorized to investigate any offenses which had been committed before the sitting of the regular term or during such term, but which had been overlooked by the grand jury first empanelled.

(2) The nunc pro tunc entries must be taken as reflecting the order which the court actually made respectively on the 19th and 20th days of April, 1915, concerning the venire facias for the special grand jury and the empanelling of the same. In the absence of any proof to the contrary, it must ¡be held that the court made these orders and that same were not correctly entered by the clerk, and that the court therefore, at a subsequent term, had the orders correctly entered mmc pro tunc. This the court had the authority to do. Lowe v. Hart, 93 Ark. 584; Lourance v. Lankford, 106 Ark. 470. Moreover, the grand jury having been convened under the authority of section 2219, supra, would have had power, under its general jurisdiction, to inquire into and present all felonies which had been discovered after the regular grand jury had been discharged, which that jury had failed to investigate. See also, Kirby’s Digest, § 2194.

The testimony on behalf of the State tended to show that the appellant had illicit intercourse with Lizzie Pitts which ¡began in May, 1914, as ¡a result of which she became pregnant in November, 1914. She notified the appellant of her condition, and testified that when she did so that appellant cursed and ¡said that she was not going to have the child and disgrace him; that he came on the night of March 16,1915, with Dr. Whitehead. She then relates that the appellant laid her down on his overcoat and held her while the doctor used metal instruments upon her, and that when the doctor got through he said, “I have used both of them at the same time and have stuck the little one through the child’s head and guarantee that it will come sooner or later.” She relates in detail what the doctor and appellant did ¡and said during and after the alleged operation, which it is not necessary to set out.

It was shown that the prosecutrix was pregnant with a quick child. She had had three children by her husband, who was living away from the prosecutrix in Oklahoma. The prosecutrix testified that she always knew when she became pregnant by having missed her periods.

There was testimony by the sheriff to the effect that on the advice of the prosecuting attorney he went to the home of the prosecutrix at night a short time before the circuit court was to convene and that while there the appellant came; that the sheriff and two of his deputies were secreted in the house and heard a conversation between the appellant and the prosecutrix, the details of which it is unnecessary to set forth, but the effect of which w;as that the prosecutrix and the appellant went over the whole ground of the illicit intercourse that had obtained between them and which resulted in the pregnancy of the prosecutrix .and in the killing of the unborn quick child by the appellant. That the appellant was endeavoring to have the prosecutrix go away in order that the prosecution against him might 'be suppressed; that he offered her money to leave and stay away until after the spring and August terms of the court; that the prosecutrix refused to go and that they indulged in criminations and recriminations, she upbraiding him for the manner in which he had treated her and he censuring her for preferring charges against him; that during the course of the conversation appellant admitted to having procured the doctor to perform the abortion, and that certain other things were true which the prosecutrix accused him of in the way of assisting the doctor in connection with the operation which resulted in the death of the .child. The testimony of the sheriff was, in certain respects, corroborated by the testimony of his deputy. It is unnecessary to set out in detail all this testimony.

(3) The testimony of physicians, on behalf of appellant, who qualified as experts, was to the effect that it would have been impossible, in their opinion, to have produced the abortion and death of the unborn infant in the manner which the prosecutrix detailed. It is unnecessary to .set out in detail all of this testimony. Suffice it to say the issue was one for the jury under the evidence.

"While the appellant contends that the court erred in refusing to grant certain of his prayers for instructions, none of the rejected prayers are set out, nor are any of the instructions which the court gave, and no error in the charge of the court is shown.

(4) The appellant complains 'because the court refused to permit him to ask the prosecuting witness if she had ever missed her periods before she was married. This testimony was not competent. It was too remote to throw any light upon the question as to whether or not the prosecutrix knew whether she was pregnant with a quick child at the time it was alleged that the appellant committed the offense charged.

(5) Appellant contends that the court erred in refusing to permit him to ask the prosecuting witness the following questions:

“Q. Now you state that you knew he would not do what he promisedto do. Awhile ago you stated you were waiting to see whether he would do what he promised to do before you would tell it. Now state to the jury why you were waiting?

“Q. Did Mr. Dawson ever promise to marry you?

“Q. Did you intend to accept the money from Mr. Dawson to pay your transportation out to Texas, accept the money he deposited in the bank, and accept the payment of your board and still come back here and testify in this case?”

The only purpose appellant could have had in asking these questions was to test the credibility of the prosecuting witness and to show her motive and interest in testifying, but the record discloses that the court had permitted an exhaustive cross-examination (of the prosecuting witness, fully sufficient to test her credibility and to show her interest in the prosecution and the motive which prompted her to give her testimony.

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Carter v. Missouri Pacific Railroad
681 S.W.2d 314 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1984)
Clark v. State
442 S.W.2d 225 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1969)
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199 S.W.2d 965 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1947)
Sutton v. State
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184 S.W. 433 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1916)
Whitehead v. State
181 S.W. 154 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1915)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
180 S.W. 761, 121 Ark. 211, 1915 Ark. LEXIS 483, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dawson-v-state-ark-1915.