People v. Considine

63 N.W. 196, 105 Mich. 149, 1895 Mich. LEXIS 804
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedApril 30, 1895
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 63 N.W. 196 (People v. Considine) 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. Considine, 63 N.W. 196, 105 Mich. 149, 1895 Mich. LEXIS 804 (Mich. 1895).

Opinion

Montgomery, J.

Respondent was convicted of receiving and aiding in the concealment of 80 bolts of cloth, knowing the same to have been stolen from one Joseph W. Esser. ' The evidence tended to show that respondent went with one Wirth and one Hahn to the boathouse of one Duff Fecteau, at Crosse Pointe, on the 8th or 9th of December, 1893, and that the stolen goods were there obtained, taken into a one-horse wagon, and removed to Wirth’s place, on Atwater street; that subsequently the goods were taken to the tailor shop of one Hoetger, and there sold, and that a check was given to respondent by Hoetger in payment for the goods; that respondent was arrested directly in front of .Hoetger’» store, and that he immediately threw a piece of paper into his mouth, which he refused to give up until it was so chewed that it coulid not be identified. Respondent admitted that he was present on the occasion, but his testimony differs from other witnesses in some details as to what was said and done, and he claims to have been acting .without any knowledge that the goods were stolen, and without any connection with the transactions relating to their concealment or sale.

Complaint is made that the trial judge refused to grant a continuance of the case to enable respondent to obtain [155]*155counsel. We have examined the record with care, and are satisfied that there was no such abuse of discretion on the part of the trial judge as would justify us in reversing the case upon this ground. Respondent was represented on the trial by two counsel, and while his counsel insisted that the attorney originally employed in the case, Col. Atkinson, would have been better prepared .to try it, the record affords indication that it became á question as to whether Col. Atkinson would postpone the present case or another case in which he was at the time engaged. Some discretion must be allowed a trial judge in arranging and disposing of cases, if courts are to be run with any regard whatever for economy, and we are not prepared to say that there was any abuse of such discretion in the present case.

On the day preceding the trial, the circuit judge made an order for the summoning of 30 extra jurors, under the provisions of Act No. 204, Laws of 1893. The jurors were publicly drawn. After the drawing, an order was made that the names of the jurors so drawn should not be given to the public or to the counsel for the prosecution or defense. On the morning of the trial, Judge Gartner, who had assisted in a former trial of the case, appeared, and noted an exception to the entry of the order for drawing the extra jurors and the order suppressing the names of the jurors. Following upon, this the following proceedings took place:

“Judge Gartner: I now ask, if your honor please, to see the original venire in order to ascertain as to the regular drawing of this jury.
“The Court: You may see it.”
The venire was produced, and handed by the clerk to Judge Gartner.
“Mr. Fraser: Counsel has asked for the minutes of this drawing, to see whether the matter was regular. He brings it here, and immediately dictates to Tom Navin’s brother the names of the jurymen. I ask that he be ordered to surrender it to the clerk.
“The Court: I understand your purpose in receiving—
[156]*156• “Judge Gartner: I desire to ascertain as to whether these names have been returned by the jury commission or not, and I have a right to do that.
“The Court: There is no question about that. You. may read that over.
“Mr. Hunt: Do I understand that he is to have time, not only to read over these names, but to go down to the jury commission, and come back here, and make an investigation at this time?
“The Court: No, sir; we are to proceed to impanel a jury this morning. You may proceed now.”

Counsel for respondent insisted that they had a right to ascertain “whether these names are the names in the jury-box or not,” and asked that the clerk furnish a list of the names, to which the court replied that counsel would have to be satisfied with the return, counsel stating:

• “It is customary, as I understand, at the beginning of the trial, for a list of the jurors, their names and residences, to be furnished to attorneys. Now, this list that was drawn yesterday, of course we don’t know anything about it. The list was not furnished.
“The Court: It was your business to be present, and ascertain who was drawn.
“Judge Gartner: We don’t know anything about it.
“The Court: You have known it.
“Judge Gartner: I don’t know what time it was, as far as that is concerned, if your honor please. It strikes me that I ought to have had some kind of notice, and I desire further at this time to enter an exception to the-drawing of this jury at this time, without having given counsel for the respondent notice of the drawing of this jury-’’

These proceedings were followed by an application for a eontinuance, which was denied, and. the impaneling of the jury proceeded, the clerk proceeding to call first from the regular panel of jurymen, and, after that panel was exhausted, calling jurymen from among the names drawn from the box on the previous day.

The statute contemplates that the drawing of jurors Shall be public, and that after the names are drawn the [157]*157minute of the drawing shall be signed by the commissioners and attending officers, and filed in the clerk’s office, when it is made the duty of the clerk to make out a venire facias directed to the sheriff, commanding him to summon the persons named to appear and act as jurors.1 The practice pursued in this case of suppressing the names of jurors cannot be commended. It seems to have been adopted in the fear that, if the knowledge of the names of the jurors were furnished, there would be opportunity for tampering with the jury. But, in our view, the trial judge was too apprehensive. We need not determine whether respondent’s counsel have pursued the correct practice, or whether the error is such as to call for a reversal of the case, as we are of the opinion that the judgment should be reversed on other grounds, but the question is of too much importance to pass unnoticed. A person accused of crime is entitled to a fair opportunity to ascertain the antecedents and predilections of those to whom his fate is to be committed, and this right may be as important to him as the right to be confronted with the witnesses against him.

The claim is made that there was no written application for the order directing the drawing of additional jurors, but we think this was unnecessary. It is made the duty of the judge, by the statute in question, to order additional jurors when enough are not present, and this he can do on his own motion. The fact that his attention has been called to it by the prosecuting attorney, either verbally or otherwise, would certainly not nullify Ms action.

Exception was taken to permitting .one Charles Nulling to act as a juror, for the reason that he was not a citizen. This question is ruled by People v. Scott, 56 Mich.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
63 N.W. 196, 105 Mich. 149, 1895 Mich. LEXIS 804, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-considine-mich-1895.