People v. Blake

122 N.W. 113, 157 Mich. 533, 1909 Mich. LEXIS 1040
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 6, 1909
DocketDocket No. 125
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 122 N.W. 113 (People v. Blake) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Blake, 122 N.W. 113, 157 Mich. 533, 1909 Mich. LEXIS 1040 (Mich. 1909).

Opinion

Brooke, J.

In May, 1906, the defendant was tried upon the charge of murder, and was by the jury convicted of murder in the second degree. He was thereupon sentenced to life imprisonment in the Marquette prison.

It appears that upon the night of March 18, or the early morning of March 19,1906, the pest office in the village of Brooklyn, located about 16 miles south of Jackson, had been broken open and a burglary committed. On the morning of the 19th E. H. Parish, then sheriff of Jackson county, received news of the Brooklyn burglary, and at about the same hour Sergeant Booth, a police officer of the city of Jackson, likewise heard of the burglary, and further received information that three men had been seen driving north from Brooklyn toward Jackson. A little later Booth called up Parish by telephone, and stated that three suspicious looking men had been seen at Farrell’s or Merriman’s saloon, whom he thought likely were the parties they wanted. He further asked Parish to hitch up his horses to a double carriage and drive him (Booth) and another police officer by the name of Mclnerney out to the saloon in question. This was done by Parish. On the way out to Merriman’s saloon Sergeant Booth told Parish and the other officer that there was no question in his mind from what he had heard that the three men were the parties wanted. Upon arriving at Farrell’s, the horses were turned over to a Mr. Acton, and the officers alighted. On inquiry they were told that the three men were at breakfast at a nearby boarding house. In a short time the three men, Blake, the defendant, Hamilton, and Walpole, came out on the porch of the boarding house, [535]*535and, after standing there for perhaps a minute, started to walk rapidly away. The three officers went after them, and, when they came very near, Sergeant Booth said, “We are officers, and want you,” at the same time passing Hamilton and Walpole and grappling with Blake, the defendant, by the shoulder. Mclnerney grappled with Hamilton, and Parish with Walpole. Almost immediately the respondent, Blake, jerked away from Booth, drew a revolver and fired, the shot taking effect in Booth’s head, and causing instant death. After the shooting of Booth by Blake, Hamilton drew a revolver on Mclnerney, and succeeded in making his escape together with Blake. They were captured late in the afternoon of the same day in a barn about three miles west of Jackson. All three men were heavily armed, having also upon their person dynamite caps, fuse, and nitroglycerine, and had, further, the property stolen from the Brooklyn post office.

The respondent urges five separate grounds for reversal, as follows:

“ (1) It is the contention of the respondent that the court erred in admitting testimony as to all that occurred at the village of Brooklyn.
“ (2) The court erred in permitting the people to show the conversations which occurred between Booth and various witnesses not in the presence of the respondent.
“ (3) The court erred in opening the case after the proofs had been closed by both parties, and while the prosecuting attorney was making his argument, and in putting into the record, at that time, on his own motion, without the request of the prosecuting attorney, or his assistant, a very large number of exhibits which had been identified in the course of the trial, but had not been offered in evidence.
“(4) The court erred in his remarks made to counsel for respondent after the proofs had been closed and at the time the case was opened by the court on its own motion and the exhibits put in evidence.
“ (5) The court erred in not fixing the maximum and minimum sentence.”

The first and second objections will be considered [536]*536together. The record discloses that the prosecution went very fully into the evidence concerning the burglary on the night prior to the murder. It will be borne in mind that Sergeant Booth, in his capacity as a peace officer, was in the act of making the arrest of the respondent without a warrant. It was therefore incumbent upon the prosecution to show, first, that information that a felony had been committed had reached Booth; and, secondly, that he had reasonable grounds for believing that Blake and his companions were the men who had committed that felony. It is true that the prosecution might have contented itself with merely showing the fact that a felony had been committed, that information of its commission had reached Booth, and that Booth had reasonable grounds for believing Blake to be one of its perpetrators, in order to' have justified Booth in attempting to make the arrest without a warrant. In going into the details of the burglary at Brooklyn, however, we fail to see how the respondent was in any wise prejudiced. Touching this matter, and in passing upon the objection of respondent’s counsel, the learned circuit judge said:

“The jury ought to understand the purpose, and perhaps I ought to state specifically to the jury that this man is not on trial for blowing a safe, or breaking and entering an office, or committing burglary. The evidence is permitted simply to show what had been done as bearing upon the right of Mr. Booth to attempt the arrest. I admit it for the purpose of showing a crime had been committed which would justify arrest without a warrant, provided Mr. Booth had such information of it as would lead an officer reasonably, with good reason and properly alert, to attempt to do what he did do.”

We think, upon the ground stated, the testimony was admissible. See People v. Wilson, 55 Mich. 506, 515 (21 N. W. 905). See, also, Firestone v. Rice, 71 Mich. 387 (38 N. W. 885, 15 Am. St. Rep. 266).

After the proofs were closed and counsel for the people was addressing the jury, reference was made by him to an exhibit, whereupon respondent’s counsel objected to [537]*537such reference upon the ground that the exhibit had not been introduced. The court said:

“ Now, gentlemen, those things were here. They were displayed in the presence of the jury, were talked about and testimony given in reference to them and cross-examined upon. The testimony wouldn’t be intelligible without it referred to them. It may be that the prosecuting attorney omitted in reference to some of them or all of them to formally put them in evidence, and, if he did, I will permit him now to put them in evidence.
“Mr. Shekell: Wait a minute. Let’s see whether the court ought to do that.
“Mr. Badgley: We should have offered testimony—
The Court: Very well, we will open the case, and you may offer the testimony now.
“Mr. Shekell: Perhaps our testimony isn’t available.
“The Court: Isn’t available ? You may get the testimony that isn’t available. Will it be available tomorrow morning ?
“Mr. Shekell: I submit this defendant, on trial in a criminal case, has some rights that should be observed. If I read the Constitution correctly, those things are guaranteed to him; and that is, the people must make out their case. We rested our case after they rested theirs. We rest our case upon the proof they had introduced. Now, we are not to blame because they didn’t put in their evidence. It was no part of our duty.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
122 N.W. 113, 157 Mich. 533, 1909 Mich. LEXIS 1040, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-blake-mich-1909.