Griffin v. State

1935 OK CR 70, 46 P.2d 382, 57 Okla. Crim. 176, 1935 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 32
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 14, 1935
DocketNo. A-8761.
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 1935 OK CR 70 (Griffin v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Griffin v. State, 1935 OK CR 70, 46 P.2d 382, 57 Okla. Crim. 176, 1935 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 32 (Okla. Ct. App. 1935).

Opinion

DOYLE, J.

Appellant, Dr. W. F. Griffin, was convicted in the district court of Blaine county upon an information charging that in said county on the 81st day of December, 1982, he did commit the crime of unlawful possession of narcotic drugs in manner and form as follows:

“That is to say, the defendant in the county and state aforesaid and on or about the date aforesaid, then and there being, did then and there willfully, wrongfully, unlawfully and feloniously and without authority of law, have in his possession and under his control a certain quantity of narcotic drugs, to wit: approximately 4,746 half-grain tablets of morphine sulphate, and that the defendant, Dr. W. F. Griffin, a regularly licensed physician, did with the unlawful and felonious intent to violate the narcotic law of the State of Oklahoma, contrary etc.”

Upon the trial the jury returned their verdict finding “the defendant, W. F. Griffin, guilty of the crime of unlawful possession of narcotic drugs but cannot agree on the punishment to he assessed.”

Motions for a new trial and in arrest of judgment were duly filed and overruled. The court rendered judgment on the verdict and sentenced the defendant to confinement in the state penitentiary for a term of four years and to pay a fine of f1,000 and costs.

The record shows that the defendant, Dr. W. F. Griffin, was a practicing physician in Watonga, that on December 31, 1932, he was arrested by the service of a war *179 rant of arrest at Ms office by tbe sheriff of Blaine county, and 4,746 half grain tablets of morphine were taken from his possession. On December 30, 1982, the defendant had been arrested by federal officers and was later charged with illegal sales of narcotics in the federal court. On application of the defendant, the case on September 18, 1933, was continued on account of illness of the defendant and thereafter on October 24th the case was stricken from the trial assignment, thereafter on November 3d the case was set for trial November 28, 1933. When the case was called for trial, the defendant filed a motion to strike the case from the assignment on the ground that the court was without jurisdiction to try the case before the case pending against him in the federal court for illegal sale of narcotics and set for trial at Oklahoma City January 8, 1934, had been disposed of, on the theory that he was being prosecuted in the state court for the same offense. The motion to strike was overruled. In the course of the trial the defendant objected to the introduction of state’s Exhibit A, the same being the morphine taken from the possession of the defendant when he was placed under arrest, on the ground that the same was taken without a search warrant. The court after inquiring into' the circumstances of the procuring of the evidence, in the absence of the jury, overruled the objection. Henry J. Law, sheriff, Merrill Baskins, under sheriff, and Sam Spainhower, Watonga chief of police, were present at the arrest and testified to substantially the same facts, that the morphine was taken from the defendant’s possession at the time of his arrest and incidental to it.

The lawfulness of his arrest was never questioned.

Taylor Rogers, state chemist, testified and identified the contents of the bottles that were taken from the defendant on December 31,1932, as being morphine sulphate.

*180 When the state rested, the defendant demurred to the evidence on the ground that the court was without jurisdiction to hear and determine the case for the reason that prior to the time in which the complaint was filed in the case the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma had acquired jurisdiction of the person of the defendant in a case growing out of the same transaction for which the defendant is prosecuted here; that all the evidence is based on state’s Exhibit A, which is a quantity of morphine taken from the defendant’s possession when he was under arrest, and at the command of the sheriff, the defendant delivered the same to the sheriff without a search warrant; and that the evidence is insufficient to show the commission of any offense against the laws of the state. The demurrer to the evidence was by the court overruled.

On the part of the defendant there was testimony of several medical experts as to what constituted the recognized practice of the medical profession in the use of morphine.

A number of witnesses qualified as character witnesses and further testified that the defendant’s reputation in the community as to' being an upright law-abiding citizen was good.

As a witness in his own behalf, the defendant testified to the effect that the quantity of morphine he had on hand was necessary in his treatment of certain addicts that he named, therefore his possession ivas for a lawful purpose. But on cross-examination he denied selling morphine in quantities on certain named dates to these same addicts. He then identified his only narcotic dispensing record, which was made by his wife at his direction, showing the number of persons for whom he furnished mor *181 phine and the quantities for each, which exceeded the amount he had testified to as necessary in their treatment.

The state, in order to show that the defendant did not have the morphine in his possession for strictly lawful purposes, presented evidence in the form of the defendant’s own records, to show that the defendant had acquired 48,-000 one-half grain tablets of morphine in the two-year period preceding the arrest, as shown by-Exhibit B and that his record of dispensing together with the amount on hand accounts for only 6,827 grains. Evidence was also produced, in rebuttal, of certain illegal sales made to addicts beginning the day before his arrest and dating back some three months, for the purpose of showing his intent, plan, or scheme to’ make illegal sales in connection with his possession of the 4,746 one-half grain tablets of morphine found in his possession. No record was made of these illegal sales on his narcotic dispensing record, nor is there any record showing how 17,172 grains of morphine were disposed of, that his own records show he purchased in the two years preceding his arrest.

While the defendant claimed that he had this large quantity for the treatment of certain addicts, yet he did not designate on his order forms that this excessive quantity was to be used for certain habitual users of morphine or addicts.

At the close of all of the evidence, the defendant interposed a demurrer to the same on the following grounds:

First, that the exhibits offered in the case on the part of the state were all obtained from the defendant while he was under arrest and without a search warrant and without due process of law and that the same were inadmissible in the case and without such exhibits the state had failed to make out a case against the defendant.

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Related

Hubbell v. State
1978 OK CR 109 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1978)
United States v. Candelaria
131 F. Supp. 797 (S.D. California, 1955)
State v. Lumley
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State Ex Rel. Cobb v. Mills
1945 OK CR 124 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1945)
State of Arizona v. Wortham
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Goodwin v. State
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Norris v. State
1939 OK CR 153 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1939)
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Newton v. State
1937 OK CR 8 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1937)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1935 OK CR 70, 46 P.2d 382, 57 Okla. Crim. 176, 1935 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 32, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/griffin-v-state-oklacrimapp-1935.