Encinas v. State

221 P. 232, 26 Ariz. 24, 1923 Ariz. LEXIS 98
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 22, 1923
DocketCriminal No. 564
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 221 P. 232 (Encinas v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Encinas v. State, 221 P. 232, 26 Ariz. 24, 1923 Ariz. LEXIS 98 (Ark. 1923).

Opinion

ROSS, J.

Her first assignment of error is the order overruling her challenges for cause to the following trial jurors: Ed Goldberg, E. B. Hancock, G. G. Martin, O. H, Bolt, George Boring, J. M. Smith, A. L. Mc-Cann, D. C. Hollinger, J. P. Shepard, E. E. Eogers and George Saiger. This will be treated as eleven assignments, although it appears as one. The challenges where made were individual, and in each case upon a different state of facts brought out. on the juror’s voir dire. This is the way defendant looked at the assignment, for she has not argued all the challenges together. She has taken them up singly, or such of them as she deemed worthy of argument, and pointed out her reasons for making each challenge, together with arguments and authorities in support thereof. She has not shown or attempted to show (either in brief or oral argument) wherein E. B. Hancock, G. G. Martin, George Boring, D. C. Hollinger, J. P. Shepard or George Saiger were for any reason whatever disqualified to act in her case. We therefore shall treat so much of this assignment as is directed to the order overruling chai[27]*27lenges to these jurors as abandoned, and examine those rulings only that defendant has seen fit to insist upon in brief and oral argument. We do this the more readily because we feel certain that the learned counsel who represents defendant on this appeal has not overlooked anything that could or might reasonably aid his unfortunate client.

The challenges disallowed and urged as erroneous were those to the following jurors: Ed Goldberg, O. H. Bolt, J. M. Smith, A. L. McCann and R. R. Rogers. None of these was sworn or served as a juror in the case. They were all peremptorily challenged and stricken by the defendant. It is contended defendant was wrongfully compelled to exercise five of her ten challenges upon persons who should have been excused upon her challenge for cause, and that her legal or statutory rights were curtailed or taken away from her to that extent. We have carefully looked into the qualifications of the twelve jurors who were sworn and served and find them all — as the questions and answers on their respective voir dire indicate — free from any disqualification for any cause stated in the statute. Eleven of them were in that respect satisfactory to defendant, or at least were not challenged by her. One of the jurors, G. G. Martin, was challenged for cause, but the overruling of the challenge is not urged here as error, and if it were it would be without merit, as there is no fact in the record to sustain any statutory ground of challenge. Another thing, the challenge was in this language: “I challenge juror for cause.” This challenge presented no issue to the court. To be effective the specific ground of challenge should have been stated. Booth v. Territory, 9 Ariz. 204, 80 Pac. 354; Leigh v. Territory, 10 Ariz. 129, 85 Pac. 948; People v. Owens, 123 Cal. 483, 56 Pac. 251. It is possible the challenge, taken in connection with the trend of the examination of the juror on his voir dire would in[28]*28dicate the particular ground of challenge, and if as to this júror the record showed that he was biased or prejudiced we might think it necessary to hold the challenge sufficient, but the record does not so show.

We conclude the facts of this case, for all practical purposes, places it in the same class and subjects it to the same rule as announed by the California courts, from which state our Penal Code, including part governing defendant’s rights of challenge to individual jurors, was largely taken. See Cal. Pen. Code, §§1073-1088. The rule there is that the order overruling challenge for cause must amount to prejudicial error in order to require reversal, and is very well stated in People v. Johnson, 57 Cal. App. 391, 207 Pac. 281.

“Appellant also complains that the trial court erred in disallowing his challenge for cause, interposed to one of the jurors on the ground of bias. The juror was not sworn and did not serve as such on the trial, having been subsequently excused by appellant on a peremptory challenge. It appears from the record that appellant exhausted his ten peremptory challenges, but it does not appear that he had occasion or desired to exercise an additional peremptory challenge. There is nothing to indicate that any of the jurors who served were objectionable to appellant, or that each and all of the twelve jurors finally accepted and sworn were not entirely satisfactory to him. Under these circumstances it is unnecessary to determine whether or not the ruling was erroneous, as it did not amount to prejudicial error and would not warrant a reversal. People v. Kromphold, 172 Cal. 512, 519, 520, 157 Pac. 599; People v. Schafer, 161 Cal. 573, 576, 119 Pac. 920.”

This rule is both the constitutioüal and statutory rule in this jurisdiction. Section 22, art. 6, Const.; section 1170, Pen. Code.

Defendant exercised all of her ten peremptory challenges. Five were used on jurors that she had un[29]*29successfully objected to for cause. Just why one of the remaining five was not employed on juror Martin is not apparent. Defendant might have thought him less objectionable than any of the five stricken, and against whom she had interposed no objection for cause, and if the record showed Martin was in fact disqualified, and that a proper challenge had been made, the court might feel bound to hold the order disallowing such challenge error. In People v. Kromphold, 172 Cal. 512, 157 Pac. 599, supra, the court quotes from People v. Schafer, 161 Cal. 573, 119 Pac. 920, supra, as follows:

“ . . . The important thing is that it does not appear that an objectionable juror was forced upon the defendant.”

We think that is clearly the situation here, because Martin was not disqualified or legally objectionable. Even though the court may have erred in disallowing the five, or some of the five, challenges made by defendant for cause and urged on this appeal as erroneous, the record disclosing that the twelve jurors who served were not disqualified, such disallowances “did not amount to prejudicial error, and would not warrant a reversal.”

Upon the request of defendant the witnesses were put under the rule or, as Professor Wigmore would say, sequestered during the taking of testimony. Mrs. Margaret Randell, wife of the deceased, was not listed as one of the prosecution’s witnesses, and was not used as such in chief. After the defendant had testified in her own behalf, Mrs. Randell was called for the purpose (as stated by the county attorney) of rebutting defendant’s testimony. Defendant objected to her testifying on the ground of the nonobservance of the court’s order. The county attorney explained to the court that it could not have been foreseen that Mrs. Randell would be used or needed as a witness, [30]*30and that hence she was not placed under the rule, and that her testimony was being offered to rebut that of defendant.

It may be assumed, in passing upon the question thus raised, that both the witness and the prosecution acted in good faith, and with no design to secure 'any undue advantage of the defendant.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
221 P. 232, 26 Ariz. 24, 1923 Ariz. LEXIS 98, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/encinas-v-state-ariz-1923.