Hearne v. State

181 S.W. 291, 121 Ark. 460, 1915 Ark. LEXIS 510
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedDecember 20, 1915
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 181 S.W. 291 (Hearne 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
Hearne v. State, 181 S.W. 291, 121 Ark. 460, 1915 Ark. LEXIS 510 (Ark. 1915).

Opinion

Kirby, J.,

(after stating the facts). Appellant’s first contention for reversal is that the court erred in denying his right to peremptorily challenge one of the jurors offered after the twenty peremptory challenges allowed by law had already been exercised by the defendants in the case in which he was jointly tried.

It is argued that appellant did not exercise his right of 'challenge at all, was not consulted and did not participate therein, the right being given to Bob Kenton, whom the record shows challenged the twenty jurors. Under our statute, the defendant is entitled to twenty peremptory challenges in prosecutions for felony and it is not claimed that the twenty challenges were not exercised and the right exhausted in this case but that each defendant where they were tried jointly, is entitled to the designated number of peremptory 'challenges. The. law allowing three peremptory challenges of jurors to the parties in civil actions has been construed and held to mean that each side is only entitled to that number, without regard to the number of plaintiffs or defendants interested in the trial; that the challenge of a juror on behalf of the plaintiff or defendant is a challenge for all on that side, regardless of number and this is likewise true when-cases are consolidated and tried together. Fidelity Phenix Ins. Co. v. Friedman, 174 S. W. 215, 117 Ark. 71.

(1) Appellant was jointly indicted with the others and ¡had the right upon request to a separate trial, when he individually would have been permitted to exercise the right to twenty peremptory challenges, 'but not having asked to sever, and having consented to the joint trial, the defense only had the right to the exercise of said number of challenges without regard to the number of persons on trial as defendants. The law only intends to permit the exercise of said number of challenges for the defense on a single trial in a felony prosecution. U. S. v. Hall, 10 L. R. A. 323; People v. Thayer, 1 Parker, C. R. 595; State v. Wolf, 112 Ia. 458; Cochran v. U. S., 77 C. C. A. 432; State v. MacQueen, 69 N. J. Law, 522.

It is ‘next complained that the court erred in the admission of incompetent testimony. This contention is without merit however. It is true, J. A. Green, was permitted to testify that J. A. Osborne was a party to a suit instituted by the State of Tennessee v. Cissna and others in the chancery court, but the .appellant had already introduced in evidence the record of said cause ■showing that fact.

(2) Neither did the court err in allowing said witness, Green, to testify about the true boundary line between the States of Tennessee and Arkansas, from the copy of the map produced by him in evidence. He stated that he had formerly made a survey of the island to determine the boundary line and had made a map thereof and that the copy of the map introduced in evidence, and referred to in his testimony, was ¡a photographic copy of the original map made 'by him and which had been compared iand was -known by him to be correct.

■Curtis. Little, the clerk of Mississippi County testified that he had used the field notes of the section and township -which were taken from the photographic plat book of the original surveys made by the -government. These books were furnished to the clerks of the counties by the -State Land Commissioner’s office, with the proper certificates attached.

No witness disputed the correctness or accuracy of either the map or field notes and the court committed no error in permitting the introduction of this testimony. Sellers v. State, 93 Ark. 313; Hankins v. State, 103 Ark. 28; Russell v. State, 97 Ark. 92. See also, Hall v. Conn. Mutual Life Ins. Co., 79 N. W. 497; Mincke v. Skinner, 44 Mo. 92; Shook v. Pate, 50 Ala. 91.

(3) Neither was error committed in allowing witnesses to testify that they heard Burt Spring -and a woman call, “Oh! Mr. Dave, Mr. Dave!” several times immediately after the shooting began. These exclamations were a part of the transaction and occurrence, being made at the time and competent and admissible as part of the res gestae.

(4) It is insisted that the court erred in refusing appellant’s requested instruction embodying the legal principles -as announced in his requested instruction numbered 4 and in -giving instruction numbered 1, as follows: “On the question of venue * * * y011 are instructed that the boundary line between the State of Arkansas and the State of Tennessee in the vicinity of the alleged crime is the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi river as the same existed on the 16th day of June, 1836, the date of the admission of the State of Arkansas, and by the middle line of the main channel of the Mississippi river, is meant the equi-distant point in the main channel of said river between the well defined banks on either shore at said time, and all the water and. lands which may now occupy the space between the middle line as same then existed, and the Arkansas shore as same now exists, is within the jurisdiction of the Osceola District of Mississippi County, Arkansas.”

Said instruction numbered 4 reads: “Long acquiescence by one State in the possession of territory by another and in the exercise of sovereignty .and dominion over it, is. conclusive of the title and rightful authority of the latter State. Therefore, if you find from the evidence in this case that the State of Tennessee for more than thirty years exercised sole and exclusive jurisdiction, sovereignty and dominion over the place where the alleged crime was committed, and that the State of Arkansas has during that time acquiesced in the exercise of jurisdiction over the same, then the State of Tennessee has sole and exclusive jurisdiction over the territory where said crime was alleged to have been committed, you will return a verdict of not guilty. ”

The court in its said instruction numbered 1, also called attention to the testimony adduced relating to the existence of a civil district of Tipton .County, Tenn., upon Island 37, the establishment of polling places and holding elections thereon, under the laws of said State, the assessment and collection of taxes upon real and personal property and the exercise of jurisdiction by the courts of said county of Tennessee in civil and criminal proceedings against persons and property thereon, as well as testimony of the failure of the constituted authorities of Mississippi county, Arkansas, to exercise jurisdiction thereon and continued, “This testimony is competent and is to be considered by you, together with .all the other facts and circumstances in proof bearing upon this question of jurisdiction, but if you find from a preponderance of the evidence that the alleged crime was committed north of the middle line of the main channel of the Mississippi river, as it existed on the 16th day of June, 1836, at said place, the Osceola District of Mississippi County, Arkansas, has jurisdiction in this case, notwithstanding the exercise of the jurisdiction of the .State of Tennessee thereon, and notwithstanding the failure of the legally constituted authorities of Mississippi County, Arkansas, to exercise jurisdiction over .said territory heretofore. ’ ’

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Clines v. State
656 S.W.2d 684 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1983)
Williams v. State
593 S.W.2d 8 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1980)
Nolen v. State
393 S.W.2d 765 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1965)
Lewis v. State
251 S.W.2d 490 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1952)
Gurein v. State
193 S.W.2d 997 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1946)
Draper v. State
94 S.W.2d 119 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1936)
New York, Chicago & St. Louis Rd. v. Kovatch
166 N.E. 682 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1929)
McGuffin v. State
246 S.W. 478 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1923)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
181 S.W. 291, 121 Ark. 460, 1915 Ark. LEXIS 510, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hearne-v-state-ark-1915.