People v. Hopt

3 Utah 396
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedJune 15, 1884
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 3 Utah 396 (People v. Hopt) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah 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. Hopt, 3 Utah 396 (Utah 1884).

Opinion

Twiss, J.:

The defendant is charged by the indictment in this case with the crime of murder, and upon trial the verdict was “ guilty of murder in the first degree.” From the judgment upon this verdict the defendant appeals to this court. The record and judgment roll only are before us; if they show apparent error to the detriment of the defendant, the judgr ment must be reversed; if they do not, it should be affirmed.

The criminal procedure act of 1878, sec. 339, requires the clerk of the trial court, when judgment upon conviction is rendered, to annex together and file certain papers, which shall constitute a record of the action, among which is “ a copy of the minutes of a challenge interposed to the panel of the trial jury, or to an individual juror, and the proceedings thereon.”

The record shows that Silas F. Lake was called, examined, and “ passed ” by both parties, as to his statutory qualifications, and sworn upon his voir dire; and then the following-statement: “ Challenged by the defendant for implied bias, denied by the prosecution, overruled, exception.” Construing this entry to mean that the juror was challenged by the defendant for implied bias, that the challenge was denied by the prosecution and overruled by the court, to which ruling the defendant at the time excepted, does it show error committed by the court? A challenge for implied bias may be taken for any one or more of the causes mentioned in any one or more of the nine subdivisions of section 242 of the criminal procedure act of 1878; but section 244 requires that “one or more of the causes stated in section 242 must be alleged.” Each one of the nine subdivisions of section 242 has at least one cause or ground of challenge not contained in either of the others, and therefore a challenge for “implied bias,” without any specification as to the particular ground of the challenge, is. loose and indefinite, without point or certainty as the real or alleged objection to the juror. The court should be informed by the challenging party upon which one or more of the statutory grounds he relies; that the examination of the juror may be directed to some one or more of the particular grounds of objection allowed by the statute. “ Unless the cause be alleged, the challenge may be disregarded [398]*398by the court. It is not enough to say, ‘I challenge the juror for implied bias,’ and then stop. The particular cause from which bias is to be inferred must be stated. Such was the rule of the common law, and is the direction of the statute of this state. In the present case the challenges were interposed in general terms, ‘ for implied bias,’ without a specification of the particular causes, and for this reason, if for no other, they were properly disallowed” — is the language of the court in People v. Reynolds, 16 Cal. 131, under a statute substantially, if not identically, like ours; and is sustained by every reason that can be urged in behalf of that certainty, which should characterize all legal proceedings: People v. Rich, 37 Id. 277; People v. Hardin, Id. 258.

David Archabald and another juror were sworn upon their voir dire, and in each case the following entry appears: “Challenged by the defendant for both implied bias and actual bias. Both challenges denied by the prosecution, and both overruled; exception.” Section 26 of the act of the territorial legislature, approved March 13, 1884, provides that, “in a challenge for actual bias, the causes stated in the second subdivision of section 241 must be alleged.” The second subdivision of section 241 is as follows: “2. For the existence of a state of mind on the part of the juror which leads to a just inference in reference to the case that he will not act ' with entire impartiality, which is known in this act as actual bias.” We now consider the challenges for actual bias, and such questions as are common to both implied and actual bias; in making the challenges for actual bias, no ground or cause whatever was alleged, and no effort was made to comply with section 26 of the act of 1884, in alleging the causes as there required, and the failure to comply with the statute in this respect is fatal. The mere assertion, “I challenge the juror for implied bias,” or, “I challenge the juror for actual bias,” is no challenge, for the reason that the express requirements of the statute are ignored; there being no attempt to comply in substance or form to their explicit provisions, and the court might well at the time have ignored the declaration or position of counsel. But there is another feature of this subject. The record shows no examination of the challenged jurors upon their voir dire, or any testimony whatever pre-[399]*399seated either by the challenging or adverse party; and it is impossible to ascertain to what ruling or action of the court the exception of the defendant is taken. We can not say the exception is taken to any statement admitted against objection, or that it was to the rejection of any offered testimony; for the record is silent as to the matter. If the record' does not show that some question or matter was before the court, and that the court erroneously ruled thereon, we will not presume there was error, to the detriment of the defendant.

Although these principles, in our opinion, clearly settle all questions relied upon by the defense, arising upon the challenges for actual or implied bias made by the defendant, and the overruling of the same, we will not pass over without consideration the claim of the defense that the court should have appointed triers to try the challenges for actual bias, and that the trial of them by the court was error available to the defendant in this court, although no exception was taken thereto in the district court. Sections 246 to 258 of the criminal procedure act provide that challenges for actual bias shall be tried by triers appointed by the court for that purpose: Hopt v. Utah, 110 U. S. 574. By sections 26, 27, and 28 of an act of the legislature of Utah, approved March 13, 1884,-entitled “An act amending an act regulating the mode of procedure in criminal cases, approved February 22,1878,” the provisions of the criminal procedure act of 1878, requiring the court to appoint triers, and for the trial by triers of all challenges for actual bias, are repealed: and the court itself is required to try all such challenges; and the question is, Was the act of March 13, 1884, in force at the last trial of this case in the district court ? if it was, the court committed no error in trying the challenges without the intervention of triers appointed for that purpose. The act of Januray 19, 1854, provides “ that each act and resolution is in force from the date of its publication in any public manner, unless a certain time is specified: ” Comp. L. 78. The record is silent as to any publication of the amendatory statute of March 13, 1884. It is a rule of law that courts will take judicial noticejof the statutes and authoritative decisions of courts within their jurisdiction. We see no error committed by the court in this respect: 1 Kent’s Com. 508.

[400]*400John Gillispie was “challenged for refusing to answer defendant’s questions as to whether he was living in polygamy; refused; exception.” This is a record entry as to this juror; the same in substance appears in the examination of another juror, from which it is claimed the court erred in refusing to allow the challenge.

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Bluebook (online)
3 Utah 396, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-hopt-utah-1884.