Murray v. State

98 So. 871, 210 Ala. 603, 1924 Ala. LEXIS 28
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedJanuary 24, 1924
Docket3 Div. 619.
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 98 So. 871 (Murray v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Murray v. State, 98 So. 871, 210 Ala. 603, 1924 Ala. LEXIS 28 (Ala. 1924).

Opinion

*605 MILLER, J.

The defendant, Elmer Murray, was indicted for murder in the first degree at the spring term, 1922, of the circuit court of Escambia county for killing Jim Moye. At this term of the court he was duly arraigned on the indictment, and pleaded to it not guilty, and not guilty by reason of insanity. These pleas were entered of record in the minutes of the court. He was tried on this indictment at the spring term, 1923, of this court, was convicted by the jury of murder in the second degree, and his punishment fixed at 25 years imprisonment in the penitentiary. This appeal is prosecuted from a judgment and sentence of the court based on this verdict of the jury.

The defendant filed six pleas of former jeopardy to this indictment; demurrers of the state to each were sustained by the court. Do either of these pleas aver facts showing the defendant has been in jeopardy for this offense, which will prevent him from being tried again for it? Section 9 of the Constitution clearly states:

“That no person shall, for the same offense, be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb.”

The question presented by these pleas is, When does former jeopardy for the same offense begin? Former jeopardy for the same offense begins when the jury has been impaneled and sworn in a court of competent jurisdiction to try the defendant for the offense charged, and a sufficient indictment for the offense is read to the jury and pleaded to by the defendant.

In Prince v. State, 140 Ala. 164, 37 South. 172, this court said:

“Although the jury had been impaneled and sworn, the indictment had not been read to them and pleaded to by defendant. This was not jeopardy.”

In Bell v. State, 44 Ala. 394, this rule was declared by the court:-

“The weight of authority seems to be that when the jury has been impaneled and sworn, and the indictment read, and pleaded to by the defendant, as in this case, he is entitled to have the trial proceed to its conclusion. If it is then interrupted by an improper discharge of the jury, or other insufficient legal cause, he cannot be tried again.” Grogan v. State, 44 Ala. 9.

In that case the complaint had been read to the jury, and the defendant had pleaded to it. This rule was quoted with approval in Scott v. State, 110 Ala. 50, 20 South. 468. See, also, Lyman v. State, 47 Ala. 686.

These pleas aver in substance, each varying some in minor details, that defendant was duly indicted for this offense; he was arraigned on the indictment before the circuit court, and pleaded not guilty to it at the spring term, 1922, of the court, which was entered of record, but the case was not tried at that term. At the spring term, 1923, of this court, a day was set for the trial, and a venire in accordance with the statute was ordered by the court; they were properly drawn and summoned, and on the day set for the trial the jurors were qualified by the court; lists of the names of the jurors were furnished the state and defendant by the clerk under orders of the court, from which to strike and to select a jury. A jury was selected by the state and defendant from this list by striking names therefrom, as the statute directs, until only 12 names were left thereon; these 12 jurors so selected by the state and defendant were then called, duly impaneled, and sworn as the jury to try this defendant for this offense; and the court then, without legal excuse, without consent, and over objection of the defendant, on motion of the solicitor for the state, discharged this jury on the ground the list of qualified jurors from which the names had been stricken to obtain this jury was not a correct list of the qualified jurors, “in that it contained the names of one or more persons who had been disqualified on their voir dire examination.” Each plea avers the indictment was read to the defendant at the spring term, 1922, of the court, and he pleaded not guilty thereto. This is not sufficient. The pleas of former jeopardy should have alleged that, after this jury was selected, impaneled, and sworn, the indictment was read to them, and the defendant plead to it before them. Each plea failed to contain this averment. This defect in each plea was fatal to it, and the demurrers of the state pointing it out were properly sustained by the court. Authorities supra.

The parties announced ready for trial; the persons on the venire ordered summoned were called; the court inquired into and passed upon the qualifications of all the persons who appeared in court in response to the summons to serve as jurors, and the court then ordered the names of all those whom the -court had held competent jurors to try the defendant to be placed on lists by the clerk of the court. Fifty-eight persons on the venire were pronounced by the court on the examination to be qualified and competent jurors to try the defendant. The clerk placed on the list the names of 58 persons, 54 of these were those qualified as competent by the court; 4 of those pronounced competent by the court were inadvertently left off of this list, and four of those pronounced incompetent, or excused by the court, were inadvertently by the -clerk placed on this list. The state’s solicitor and defendant’s attorney were furnished with a copy of this list; *606 and they, without objecting to this list, without calling the attention of the court to the errors in it, proceeded to strike from it, as furnished them, in the presence of the court as the statute directs, until 12 names were left thereon; then these 12 were duly impaneled and sworn as jurors to try this case. One of these 12, J. Frank Ward, had been held disqualified by the court because he stated on his voir dire examination that he was not in favor of capital punishment; and the other 11 jurors were of those held qualified and competent by the court.

On motion of the solicitor for the state, which was resisted and objected to by the defendant, it was ordered and adjudged by the court that this jury “be and hereby is vacated, set aside, and discharged”; the clerk was directed and ordered by the court to prepare a new and correct list of the qualified jurors for the state, and defendant to select a jury from it. The defendant objected and excepted to these orders of the court. And, it appearing to the court that the clerk had no correct list of the jurors that had qualified, the court over objection and exception of the defendant proceeded to recall the names of all persons on the venire, including the names of the 12 jurors sworn and discharged, for the purpose of examining them as to their qualifications as jurors to try this defendant.

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Bluebook (online)
98 So. 871, 210 Ala. 603, 1924 Ala. LEXIS 28, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/murray-v-state-ala-1924.