People v. Flaherty

27 A.D. 535
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York·Decided July 1, 1898·Published·Cited by 8 cases

Opinion

Follett, J.:

At- the time of the transactions out of which this action arose, the Penal Code provided :

“§ 278. Rape is an act of sexual intercourse with a female hot "the wife of the perpetrator, committed against her will or" without her consent. A person perpetrating such an act or an act of sexual intercourse Avith a female not his wife,
[537] “ (1) When the female is under the age of sixteen years; * * *
“ (6) When she is' at the time unconscious of the nature of the act, and this is known to the defendant, “ is punishable by imprisonment for not less than five nor more than twenty years.”

February 6, 1893,' an. indictment was found at a Court of Oyer and Terminer charging the defendant with the violation of the 1st and 6th subdivisions of the section above quoted. By the first count he was charged with having sexual intercourse at the town of Mount Morris on the 1st day of July, 1892, with Mary Sweeney, a female under sixteen years of age and not his wife. By the second count he was charged with having sexual intercourse with Mary Sweeney, a female under the age of sixteen years and not his wife, she being at the time unconscious of the nature of the act, which was known to the defendant. The evidence was not of a character to justify a conviction under the second count, which count requires no-consideration.

February 9, 1893, the indictment was sent to the Court of .Sessions for trial. April 17,1893, the defendant was arraigned, and interposed a demurrer upon the ground that a crime was not charged in the indictment, which was overruled, and thereupon the defendant pleaded not guilty, and at the same term was tried and convicted. An appeal was taken to the General Term, which held that the indictment was sufficient, but reversed the judgment’on the ground that the court erred in not permitting the defendant to show that other persons had sexual intercourse with Mary Sweeney in June, 1892 (79 Hun, 48), which judgment was affirmed on the opinion delivered at General Term (145 N. Y. 597).

At the Court of Sessions held in September, 1895, the defendant was again convicted on the first count, and was sentenced October 9, 1895, to imprisonment in the State prison at Auburn for seven years. On the same day he appealed from the judgment, and a certificate of reasonable doubt was granted, and the defendant admitted to bail pending the appeal.

The defendant urges nine grounds of error, any one of which he insists requires a reversal of the judgment and a new trial:

(1) That the court erred i.n overruling the defendant’s challenge to Henry Ford, a juror called, for actual bias.
[538] . (2) That the court erred in overruling the defendant’s challenge to George H. Snyder, a juror, for actual bias.-
(3) That the court erred in denying defendant’s motion, at. the opening of the trial, that the district- attorney be required to specify which of the eight acts described in his opening was the one charged in the.indictment and relied on, and that the court erred in denying defendant’s motion to the same effect at the close of the direct examination of Mary Sweeney.
(4) That the court ■ erred in denying the defendant’s motion that the judgment be arrested on the ground of variance between the indictment and the evidence as to the date when the alleged crime was committed.
■ (5) That the court erred in permitting ■ the jury to determine .whether the birth of the child was corroborative of the commission of the act of intercourse of May 28, 1892.
(6) That the court erred in permitting the jury to consider the alteration of the record of birth of .Mary Sweeney as a possible guilty act of the defendant.'
(7) , That the court erred in submitting to the jury the question whether the fictitious letter, which the defendant asserted he had received from Father English, was a fact tending to establish the guilt of the defendant.
(8) That the court erred in permitting Jennie Skillen to testify to the reasons given by Mary Sweeney, nine months after the alleged intercourse, for permitting it.
(9) That' the court erred in denying defendant’s motion, made at the close of the evidence, that the jury be. advised to acquit the defendant on the ground that the crime charged had not been proved, and also his motion for a new trial made after the verdict, on the ground that it was contrary to law and against the evidence. ■ . ' . .

The first and second questions relating to the challenges • to the two jurors may be conveniently considered together, and, in considering .these exceptions, it is well to have in mind the provisions of sections 376 and 455 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which was enacted in 1881,,. and took effect September first of that year. These sections have never been amended, and provide :

§ 376. Particular causes of challenge are of two kinds,:. * * *
[539] “ For the existence of a state of mind on the part of the juror, in reference to the case, or to either party, which satisfies the court, in the exercise of a sound discretion, that such - juror cannot try the issue impartially and without prejudice to the substantial rights of the party challenging, and which is known in this Code as actual bias. But the previous expression or formation of an opinion or impression in reference to the guilt or innocence of the defendant, or a present opinion or impression in reference thereto, is not a sufficient ground of challenge for actual bias, to any person otherwise legally qualified, if he declare, on oath, that he believes that such opinion or impression will not influence his verdict, and that he can render an impartial verdict according to the evidence, and the court is satisfied that he does not entertain such a present opinion or impression as would influence his verdict.”
“§ 455. On the trial of an indictment exceptions may be taken by the defendant-to a decision of the court, upon a matter of law, by which his substantial rights are jnejudiced and not otherwise, in any of the following cases: * * *
‘ 2. In admitting or rejecting testimony on the trial of a challenge for actual bias to any juror who participated in the verdict, or in allowing or disallowing such challenge.”

Under these sections it has been held that the decision of the trial court, on the question of indifferency of a juror, is not reviewable, except in the absence of any evidence to support it, and so, where the challenge is overruled, the decision may not be reviewed unless the evidence discloses a condition of mind on the part of the juror, which, as matter of law, renders him incompetent for actual bias. (People v. McQuade, 110 N. Y. 284; People v. McGonegal, 136 id. 62.) .

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People v. Flaherty, 27 A.D. 535 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1898).

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