Myers v. State

7 Tex. Ct. App. 640
Procedural entryThis page is a short order in Myers v. State. Read the opinion of the Court — 8 Tex. Ct. App. 321
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided July 1, 1880·Published

Opinion

Winkler, J.

Of the several errors assigned, on account of which it is urged the judgment of the District Court is erroneous and should be reversed, the following appear to be of the most importance and to bear most especially on the right of the appellant to a fair and impartial trial in accordance with the law of the land : —

1. Did the court err in overruling the defendant’s application for a continuance?

2. Was there error in refusing to grant a change of venue ?

3. Were the rights of the defendant to be tried by an impartial jury impaired by the rulings of the court in the formation of the jury ?

4. Did the court err in its instruction to the jury as to the law of the case in the charges given, or in refusing to give certain special charges asked by the defendant’s counsel on the trial below?

Other questions are presented by bills of exception and the assignment of errors, which, in the main, so connect themselves with the questions above set out as to be con[643]*643sidered in connection therewith, or as incident thereto, so far as deemed of any material importance in determining the merits of this appeal.

1. With reference to the continuance. From the judgment-entry we make the following extract as showing the state of the continuances: “Whereupon came to be heard the defendant’s application for a continuance, the same being the fourth application,” and it was overruled. The record does not state, nor lead to the inference, that the ground of the refusal was that it was the fourth application. The above extract is made as the only authoritative statement as to the number of continuances applied for, and we take it as being conclusive that the one overruled was, as stated, the fourth application. This not being either a first or a second application for a continuance, under the statute as it stood before the adoption of the Revised Code of Procedure, and at the time the proceeding in question was had, it comes within the following rule: “Applications for continuances not based upon the statute, and which do not meet its requirements, are addressed to the discretion of the court to whom they are made, and should be granted or refused according to the circumstances, and will not be revised on appeal except in a clear case of abuse of that discretion.” Nelson v. The State, 1 Texas Ct. App. 41; Baldessore v. Stephanes, 27 Texas, 455 ; Jackson v. The State, 4 Texas Ct. App. 292. The discretion, however, is not an irresponsible one, but must be exercised within the bounds of settled rules of practice. In Hyde v. The State, 16 Texas, 445, the following quotation from the opinion of the court in The People v. Vermilyea, 7 Cow. 390, was cited with approval as illustrative of the common-law rule on the subject: “ The rule is substantially the same in civil and criminal cases, though in the latter the authorities all agree that the matter is to be scanned more closely on account of the superior temptation to delay and escape the sentence of the law. * * * In cases where the com[644]*644mon affidavit applies the court has no discretion. The postponement is a matter of right, resting on what has become a principle of the common law. But when' there has been loches, or there is reason to suspect that the object is delay, the judge at the circuit may then take into consideration all the circumstances, * * * and grant or delay the application at his pleasure. Where the subject takes this turn, the application ceases to be matter of right, and rests in discretion.” See Hyde’s Case, and authorities there cited ; also Jackson’s Case, supra.

In this case the defendant asked a continuance on account of the absence of witnesses, —Thomas J. Myers, Jane Ann Myers, Diana Tatum (now Powell), Mat Rawlins, Thomas Koon, and L. B. Terwelliger. As to Koon and Terwelliger, the showing as to diligence is not sufficient. The affidavit states that subpoenas and attachments have been issued for them, which have been returned not served, the witnesses not being found; but there is no such stating of the diligence as that we can see from the application it was legal diligence ; and further, the affidavit states, in effect, that his efforts to ascertain where they live have been ineffectual. As to Mrs. Myers and Mrs. Tatum, or Powell, the statement of facts shows that they were both present at the trial and testified at the instance of the defendant. The absent witness Mat Rawlins, it is stated in the affidavit for a continuance, resides in Tarrant County; that the witness had been served with a subpoena, and ‘ ‘ that he had caused an attachment to be issued to Tarrant County for said witness, which has been returned not served ; ’ ’ and that the witness had been in attendance upon the court, and had assured the defendant’s counsel he would be in attendance. No legal diligence had been used to compel the attendance of the witness. If the defendant chose to risk his promise to attend, he did so at his peril; and further, as to his testimony, it does not appear to have been of such materiality in determining the question of the defendant’s guilt as to [645]*645have had any influence on the verdict. As to the other remaining witness, Thomas J. Myers, his testimony was inaccessible to the defendant, agreeably to his own affidavit. The desired witness is shown to have been indicted in a separate indictment for the same offence of which the defendant was accused.

“Persons charged as principals, accomplices, or accessories, whether in the same indictment or by different indictments, cannot be introduced as witnesses for one another,” so long as they remain in that relation. Penal Code, art. 91; former Code, art. 230. The statute, in the same article, provides, however, that persons standing in that relation “may claim a severance, and if any one or more be acquitted, they may testify in behalf of the others; ’ ’ and it is claimed here that a severance was had on the idea that there was no testimony against the indicted witness ; but it is further shown that he was indeed placed on trial, but the jury before whom he was tried, instead of acquitting, convicted him of murder. It is urged in behalf of the appellant, and so stated in the affidavit for a continuance, that his said witness is innocent and has appealed, and it is confidently expected that the judgment of conviction against him will be reversed, and that this defendant will ultimately be thus enabled to procure his testimony.

We are not aware that the precise question here presented has been before the court of last resort in Texas except in one case, and that a case of misdemeanor, in which the statute allowing a severance was construed to be to the effect that where a party had procured a severance in order to put another on trial, on the idea that there was no testimony against him, and when, instead of being acquitted, he had been convicted, that this was an end of the matter; that the law, it was believed, never contemplated that a defendant who had procured this proceeding could delay the trial until the other party could test the legality of his conviction by appeal. Slawson v. The State, decided at the last [646]*646Tyler term, ante, p. 63. The subject of a severance and its consequences has been further considered in Rucker v. The State, ante, p. 549, where it is held that the latter portion of art.

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Myers v. State, 7 Tex. Ct. App. 640 (Tex. Ct. App. 1880).

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Related

Hyde v. State
16 Tex. 445 (Texas Supreme Court, 1856)
Baldessore v. Stephanes
27 Tex. 455 (Texas Supreme Court, 1864)
Williams v. State
41 Tex. 209 (Texas Supreme Court, 1874)
People v. Vermilyea
7 Cow. 369 (New York Supreme Court, 1827)