People v. O'Brien

36 N.W. 225, 68 Mich. 468, 1888 Mich. LEXIS 943
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 2, 1888
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 36 N.W. 225 (People v. O'Brien) 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. O'Brien, 36 N.W. 225, 68 Mich. 468, 1888 Mich. LEXIS 943 (Mich. 1888).

Opinion

Morse, J.

The respondent has been twice convicted of a willful trespass upon the improved lands of Levi and Charles H. Loomis, and destroying grain growing thereon, under •section 9174, How. Sfcat.

The case as it appeared in this Court the first time will be found reported in 60 Mich. 8 (26 N. W. Rep. 795).

We do not consider it necessary to discuss the objections raised upon the second trial, and now urged here again, that were by us decided and disposed of when the case was here before. The objections to the complaint and warrant, as to the description of the premises and thb kind of grain destroyed not being specifically set out, comes, as then said, too late. Nor do we consider that the defendant could have been harmed on the second trial by the insufficiency of the ■description. He must have been informed fully upon the first trial of the exact location of the premises, and the kind ' of grain that he was accused of destroying. The only object of a specific identification of the land and the grain in the complaint and warrant would be to apprise him of the particular ■offense with which he was charged. There was not, on the. last trial, the saíne urgent reason for this specification which existed at the first. There is, therefore, no better reason for quashing the complaint and warrant now than there was when the case was first here.

But respondent’s counsel claim that they established, before the beginning of the last trial, by affidavits before the oircuit court, which affidavits are made a part of the bill of •exceptions, that they did in fact raise these objections, and move to quash therefor, before the first trial of the cause; [470]*470and that the showing by their affidavits entitle them to raise-the point here.

It, however, appears in the record that the circuit judge-refused to amend the record, so that it would show the making of this motion, upon the express ground that no such motion had ever been made. If the motion was made, as claimed by these affidavits, it must have been made before this same circuit judge. We cannot amend the record as made by the circuit court, at the hearing upon a writ of error and bill of exceptions. We must take the record as settled by the circuit judge, unless some proceedings are taken before hearing to amend it.

The clerical error discovered in the warrant, since the last trial, cannot avail the defendant now. The word “ there left out of the warrant in relation to the “growing and being ” of the grain on the land, is found in its proper place in the complaint. It was a mere clerical omission, and corrected itself in the reading, but, if of any consequence, should have been objected to before the first trial of the cause.

The case against the respondent rested almost entirely upon the testimony of Theobald Miller, who claimed that he and the accused committed the trespass; that he took part in it. at the request of the respondent; that they stayed that night at the house of O’Brien’s father, he and the accused sleeping together. He testified that he and the respondent got up about % o’clock A. m., and put on rubbers, and went to the-wheat field of the Loomises, and cut down and destroyed some standing wheat growing upon the premises, and committed other depredations. He further gave evidence that during the day before the trespass was committed the respondent said to him,—

“ Will you stay here to-night, and tell your wife you are to stay here so as to pick squash-bugs early in the morning before they fly ? And we will tell Cobb tnat you are to stay so as to pick bugs early in the morning.”

[471]*471He was permitted to further testify, against objection, that-the morning after the trespass, while they were picking squash-bugs at O’Brien’s, the old man O’Brien, father of the-respondent, said to Oobb in the presence of respondent:

“ If Mr. Loomis had any depredations committed last night we know that Eddie [respondent] and Miller did not do it, because they both stayed at our house all night.”

Cobb was then called by the people, and testified that the respondent told him the night before that Miller was going to stay there that night to pick squash-bugs; and that old man O’Brien, the next morning, while they were at work, said, in the presence of Miller, respondent, and himself, that Eddie and Miller had both staid there at his house that night, and he knew that they did not do it, — speaking of the trespass committed upon the premises of Loomis. This statement of the old gentleman was objected to as immaterial, as the respondent could not be convicted upon the statements of his father. The evidence was, however, admitted and retained in the case.

The respondent made a statement in his own behalf, not being sworn. He said he had no knowledge of the depredations ; that he staid at home that night, and did not commit the trespasses, and was not with Miller when they were committed ; and denied the testimony of Miller relative to the matter. The testimony is not all set out in the record, and it does not appear whether or not he gave any evidence as to Miller staying at his father’s house that night, or that he said anything about the remark his father was alleged to have made in the morning while picking bugs.

In connection with this evidence as to the old man’s statement to Cobb, and the fact of Miller’s testimony that he stayed at O’Brien’s that night, the prosecuting attorney, in his address to the jury, to use the language of the record,—

“ Asked the jury to consider the fact that the respondent’s father and mother were not sworn for the respondent as wit[472]*472nesses, as being a circumstance tending to show the guilt of respondent.”

These remarks were objected to by respondent’s counsel as being immaterial atid irrelevant and not a proper subject of comment to the jury; and he requested the court to forbid the prosecuting attorney commenting upon the fact that the respondent’s father and mother were not sworn as witnesses in his behalf.

The court ruled that the failure of the respondent to place his father upon the stand to testify in his behalf, if he had knowledge of facts material to the defense claimed by respondent, was a legitimate subject of comment by the prosecuting attorney to the jury, respondent’s father having been in the court-room and in attendance upon the trial during the whole thereof. The court further directed the prosecutor to refrain from commenting upon the fact that respondent’s mother was not produced as a witness in his behalf, and further said to the jury that any statement or argument of the prosecuting attorney as to the failure of the respondent to produce his mother as a witness in his behalf could not be considered by them, nor could the fact that she was not so sworn be considered by them.

The respondent’s counsel also requested the court to instruct the jury in this behalf that—

«The jury are not to draw any inference unfavorable to the respondent from the fact that the father of respondent was not sworn in his behalf, nor that the respondent’s mother was not sworn.”

This request was not given by the circuit judge, nor was any reference made to the subject in his general charge.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

People v. Bigge
285 N.W. 5 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1939)
People v. Todaro
240 N.W. 90 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1931)
People v. Austin
192 N.W. 590 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1923)
People v. Schultz
178 N.W. 89 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1920)
People v. Courtney
144 N.W. 568 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1913)
State v. Baruth
91 P. 977 (Washington Supreme Court, 1907)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
36 N.W. 225, 68 Mich. 468, 1888 Mich. LEXIS 943, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-obrien-mich-1888.