Lee v. State

113 S.W. 301, 54 Tex. Crim. 382, 1908 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 378
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas·Decided October 21, 1908·No. No. 4010.·Published·Cited by 12 cases

Opinion

BAMSEY, Judge.

Appellant was indicted in the Criminal District Court of Harris County, charged with the murder of one *383 James S. Simpson. He was tried therein on the 39th day of April and was convicted of murder in the second degree and his punishment assessed at twenty years confinement in tire penitentiary.

Many of the questions raised on the appeal have been decided adversely to the contention of appellant. He raises, among other questions, the validity of what is known as the jury wheel law. This question has been decided against appellant in the case of Smith v. State, yet unreported, and need not be further discussed. In the same connection appellant contends that the special venire in this case was improperly drawn in that same was drawn by the district clerk of Harris County and not by the clerk of the Criminal District Court of said county. We do not believe that this contention can be maintained. Section 3 of the Act of the Thirtieth Legislature, p. 369, provides that after the cards containing the names of jurors shall be deposited in the wheel same shall be kept locked at all times, except when in use as hereinafter provided, and that the keys to such locks shall be kept, one by the sheriff and the other by the district clerk. It is provided by section 4 of said Act that not less than ten days prior to the first day of the court, the clerk of the district court, or one of his deputies, and the sheriff, or one of. his deputies, in the presence and under the direction of the district judge if the jurors are to be drawn for the district court, shall draw from the wheel containing the names of jurors, after the same has been well turned so that the cards therein arc thoroughly mixed, one by one the names of thirty-six jurors, or a greater or less number where such judge has so directed for each week of the term of the district court. By section 9 of said Act is provided that whenever a special venire is ordered the clerk or his deputy, in the presence and under the direction of the judge, shall draw from the wheel containing the names of jurors the number of names required for such special venire. Attention is called to the fact that the law does not provide that the “district clerk” but that the “clerk” shall draw the names from the wheel, and the contention is made that this general designation “clerk” was so used that it might include the criminal district clerk and it does not mean the clerk of the district' court, or the clerk of a district court having no criminal jurisdiction, but that the intent of the entire Act is that the clerk of the court in which the lists are to be used shall draw the names. We think in view of the entire statute, and particularly with reference to section 3, which provides that one of the keys shall be kept by the district clerk and the other by the sheriff and the sections of the Act in question where the general word “clerk” is used in respect to their duties concerning jurors, that it was not the intention of the Legislature that any special significance should be attached in section 9 of the Act in question, to the fact that the word “clerk” and not “district” clerk is used therein. It will be noted, too, that *384 when a special venire is drawn it is made the duty of the clerk to prepare a list of such names in the order in which they are drawn from the wheel, and attach such list to the writ and deliver the same to the sheriff, and the cards containing such names shall be sealed up in an envelope and shall be retained by the clerk for distribution, as herein provided. So that we believe the court below took the proper view of this matter and was clearly right in having the list drawn by the district clerk of Harris County.

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Lee v. State, 113 S.W. 301, 54 Tex. Crim. 382, 1908 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 378 (Tex. 1908).

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