Smith v. State

1934 OK CR 150, 38 P.2d 591, 56 Okla. Crim. 318, 1934 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 89
Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma·Decided December 14, 1934·No. No. A-8745.·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

DAVENPORT, J.

The plaintiff in error, hereinafter referred to as the defendant, was convicted of manslaughter in the first degree, and sentenced to imprisonment in the state penitentiary for a'period of five years.

The testimony on behalf of the state in substance is that the deceased was the husband of the defendant. They were living together as husband and wife at the time of the killing. The day prior to the killing, defendant attended the State Fair at Dallas, Tex., and returned home the early morning of the day of the difficulty. When defendant returned home, her husband was not there. She went to bed and slept until about 10 o’clock in the morning, and' got up and prepared the noon meal, but her husband did not come home at noon. About the middle of the afternoon the defendant started out and found him at the home of Robert Lee, where he was engaged in a. card game, and showed evidence of being intoxicated. The defendant asked him to go home with her, and he replied *320 that he would when the game was over. When the game was over, the deceased went with defendant to' their home. The record shows that at the time of the difficulty the deceased and defendant were on a side street about a block and a half from their home. No one was present when the deceased and the defendant reached the shade tree where .the difficulty took place. The defendant in her testimony states, when they got near the corner of the street, near the shade tree, the deceased told her before he would go home with her he would break her damn neck:

“And he commenced to choke me. I had his knife, his watch, and everything., It was a little knife with a spring. I commenced jiggering at him. I did not think I would kill him. I stabbed him because he was choking me, and I thought he would kill me the way he was choking me; I struck him twice, the first time he tightened his grip, and the second time he turned me loose. When he turned me loose, he said he Avas going to the doctor, and when he started I followed on behind him.”

The testimony further shows the defendant went in the car in Avhich the deceased was riding to the doctor’s residence. The doctor was not at home and they came back to- his office. While the deceased was being dressed, defendant came to the door, and deceased objected and got hold of a glass and was going to try to hit her with it.

The state introduced by Willie Smith, over the objection of the defendant, Avhat Avas termed a dying declaration or statement of the deceased as to what occurred. He stated:

“Louie Smith was my brother; he was at my father’s-house when he died; he died about six days after he was cut; I was with him all the time. My brother said ‘she got me this time,’ and I asked him who got him; he said he was not going to live all the time — he Avould say he wasn’t going to live. This statement was after he was *321 cut. The night he died, about one or two hours before he died, he made a statement as to how it happened. He said he was on his way home, and she wanted him to go to the house, and he did not want to go, he wanted to go to my house; he had not been to my house for a day or two and was on the way to my house. He further stated he wanted the defendant to go on home, he didn’t want to go but she carried him on, he being drunk he could not protect himself. She caught hold of him and stabbed him. I asked him who was around there, and he said nobody. He said before she stabbed him he had said he was going to quit, and she said before she would have him quit her she would kill him.”

The deceased further in the statement said he had Dr. Moreland call the law and lock her up; that she was the last one to come in to the office and they were about to fight. The foregoing is all the testimony that is deemed necessary to set forth in this opinion.

The defendant has assigned 10 errors alleged to have been committed by the court upon which she relies for a reversal. The defendant, discussing her first assignment, contends the court erred in interrupting counsel for the defendant in his opening statement toi the jury while he was stating the circumstances that transpired between the defendant and deceased at the home of Bobert Lee a short time before the fatal difficulty, that such remarks of the court were highly prejudicial to the rights of the defendant, and were duly excepted to' by her. In presenting her argument upon the first assignment, the defendant insists that the court, when impaneling the jurors for the term, made remarks highly prejudicial to the rights of this defendant and any other defendants who were to be tried at the term of court, when the court stated to the panel, “some jurors think they must be absolutely certain the defendant is guilty. That is not true, if you *322 are reasonably certain the defendant is guilty, that is sufficient.”

As shown by the record, the first time this question was raised was in the motion of the defendant for a new trial. The remarks of the court, complained of by the defendant, do not under section 3120, O. S. 1931, constitute grounds for a new trial in a criminal case. Subdivisión 5 of the section is as follows:

“When the court has misdirected the jury in a matter of law, or has erred in the decision of any question of law arising during, the course of the trial.”

This subdivision relates to the trial jury in the case, and does not relate to the entire panel of jurors that may have been summoned for the term of court in which the defendant was tried. There is nothing in the record to show that the remarks of the court prejudiced the rights of this defendant. We have carefully examined the remarks of the court, and we hold it does not constitute a ground of challenge to the entire panel. The record fails to show there was any challenge to the panel or there was any voir dire examination of an individual juror inserted in the record. There is nothing to show that the jurors in this case heard the remarks of the court complained of by the defendant.

We have carefully examined the remarks of the court when it interrupted counsel for defendant while making his opening statement to the jury, and we hold the remarks made by the court did not prejudice the rights of the defendant or prevent her having a fair and impartial trial.

It is next contended by the defendant that the trial court erred in admitting the purported dying declaration or statement made by the deceased to his brother a short *323 time before tbe deceased died. The defendant insists and argues at length that this testimony of the witness Willie Smith, the brother of the deceased, as to the dying declaration, was inadmissible and prejudiced the rights of the defendant and prevented her from having a fair and impartial trial, and that it was incompetent, and that her objection to the introduction of the dying declaration should have been sustained.

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Smith v. State, 1934 OK CR 150, 38 P.2d 591, 56 Okla. Crim. 318, 1934 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 89 (Okla. Ct. App. 1934).

1934 OK CR 150 (Smith v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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