Shaw v. State

27 Tex. 750
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 1, 1865
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 27 Tex. 750 (Shaw v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shaw v. State, 27 Tex. 750 (Tex. 1865).

Opinion

Reeves, J.

The appellant presents three grounds for a reversal of the judgment, all of which are stated in the motion for a new trial which was overruled by the court and will be disposed of in the order in which they are presented by the motion.

1. Since the verdict of the jury in the former trial Mrs. S. J. Allen, a resident of Gplveston, Texas, has told the defendant that she knows the fact that she, the defendant, had in her possession and owned a large supply of coffee only some few months ago but prior to the date of the alleged offence against Mrs. Shaw, the defendant, and which is set forth more fully in the affidavit accompanying this petition.” Mrs. Allen’s affidavit is in accordance with the facts recited in the motion, and the further statement that the appellant had a large supply of groceries, including' candles, sugar, molasses, &c.

That this point may be fully understood, it is proper to remark in this connection that the indictment charges that the appellant in the county of Galveston did, on the 24th day of December, 1864, “ fraudulently receive and conceal two pairs of blankets, of the value of ten dollars for each pair, and one pistol of .the value of twenty-five dollars, ten yards merino of the value of two dollars for each yard, and ten yards of calico of the value of one dollar for each yard, and fifty pounds of coffee of the value of fifty cents for each pound, and ten pounds of candles of the value of fifty cents for each pound, and fifty pieces of gold, each of the denomination of doubloon and each of the valué of sixtéen dollars,” With the further averment that she knew that these articles had been stolen.

It will thus be seen that the defendant had full and distinct notice by the indictment of the various articles of property she was charged with having received and concealed.

[752]*752It is not probable that the facts stated in the motion were confined. to the knowledge of Mrs. Allen, or wére unknown to others. She had, as Mrs. Allen says, a general supply of groceries, including other articles besides those mentioned in the motion for a new trial. There is nothing disclosed that would warrant any other inference. It is not shown even that the defendant did not know before the trial that the fact could be proved by Mrs. Allen. By art. 672, Code C. P., a new trial may be granted in a case of felony when new testimony material to the defendant has been discovered since the trial.” A motion on this ground is governed by the rules which regulate civil suits. These rules are too well settled to require any extended reference to authorities., Graham in his Treatise on the Law of New Trials, after reviewing all the leading cases quotes from Judge Sutherland and adopts his opinion in the case of The People v. The Superior Court of New York, 5 Wend., 114, as expressing his own views on the subject, as follows : “ It has been shown that there are certain principles in relation to such applications which are clearly settled and well defined by long continued practice and an uninterrupted series of decisions in our own and other courts. Those principles are: 1. That a party is bound and presumed to know the general leading points which will be litigated in his case. 2. That if he omits to procure evidence which with ordinary diligence he might have procured in relation to those points upon the first trial, his motion for a new trial for the purpose of introducing such testimony shall be denied. 3. If the newly discovered evidence, consists merely of additional facts and circumstances going to establish the same points which were principally controverted before, or of additional witnesses to the same facts and circumstances, such evidence is cumulative a.nd a new .trial should not be granted. In cases to which these principles clearly and unquestionably apply, the granting or refusal of a new trial is not a matter of discretion. The parties have a legal right to a decision conformable to these principles." Where there is a doubt upon the point of negligence, or as to the character of the evidence, or as to its materiality, it becomes a matter of discretion and the court will not—perhaps I [753]*753ought to say can not—rightfully interfere.” (1 Graham & Waterman on New Trials, 489.)

In the case of Ewing v. Price, (3 J. J. Marshall, 521,) it was held necessary to show four things on a motion for new trial, on the ground of newly discovered evidence.. “The names of the witnesses that had been discovered; that the applicant has been diligent in preparing his case for trial; that the new facts were discovered after the trial and will be important; and that the evidence discovered will tend to prove facts which were not directly in issue on the trial, and were not then known or investigated by proof.” (Also, 2 J. J. Marsh, 52; Harrell v. Hill, 15 Texas, 270.)

It is clear that the application does not come within the rules of law authorizing a new trial, on account of newly discovered testimony. The facts proposed to be proved by this testimony were directly in issue on the former trial. No diligence is shown in preparing for the trial, nor is it stated that the new testimony was not known to the defendant before the trial, or any reason given that would authorize a reversal of the judgment for refusing the new trial.

The second ground for a new trial is, “ that one of the jurors, Samuel Parr, who was on the panel that tried and convicted your petitioner, when he was asked under oath by the counsel for the defence, if he had attended the trial or heard the evidence in the investigating court in the case of the State of Texas v. Mrs F. Shaw, he, the said Parr, replied, that he had not been present at the trial and had not heard any portion of the evidence in the case;' and the defendant can now prove by Mr. F. Brenard, J. Taylor, J. and C. Burrow, that the said Parr was present at the trial, and within hearing of the proceedings of the court, as an auditor.” The affidavit of two of the parties referred to, and of H. 0. Burrows, supports the foregoing statement. It does not appear from the record what occurred on the examination of the juror touching his qualifications, or that any action was taken by the court at the time, or subsequently, except that the court overruled the motion for a new trial in which this matter relating to the juror was relied on as one of the grounds of the motion.' This conduct of the juror, it is insisted in behalf of the appellant, ren[754]*754dered him unfit to sit on the jury, and also deprived the defendant of the right of challenge for cause to which she would have been entitled had he answered truly; and that a new trial should for these reasons have been awarded. That this question may be seen in its full bearing, it will .be necessary to notice so much of the statute relating to challenges and the formation of juries as may-be found to be applicable to this point. It will be observed that the question put to the juror, however answered, would not establish his qualification as such, or the want of it, or render him liable to any one of the objections pointed out by the Code of Criminal Procedure as a ground for challenge for cause as distinguished from a peremptory challenge. The forms of the questions to be propounded to a juror on his voir dire examination are not prescribed, but certain causes are declared to be grounds of challenge when objected to a particular juror.

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Bluebook (online)
27 Tex. 750, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shaw-v-state-tex-1865.