State Ex Rel. Cutsinger v. Spencer, Judge

41 N.E.2d 601, 219 Ind. 148, 1941 Ind. LEXIS 221
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 7, 1941
DocketNo. 27,634.
StatusPublished
Cited by43 cases

This text of 41 N.E.2d 601 (State Ex Rel. Cutsinger v. Spencer, Judge) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Ex Rel. Cutsinger v. Spencer, Judge, 41 N.E.2d 601, 219 Ind. 148, 1941 Ind. LEXIS 221 (Ind. 1941).

Opinion

Fansler, C. J.

This is an original action seeking a writ mandating the respondent to order prepared and furnished to the relator “a duly certified copy of the affidavit, Indictment, verdict of the Jury, judgment of sentence imposed, and all evidence and testimony introduced before the trial Jury, etc.,” in a case in which the relator was convicted of murder. The date of the judgment of conviction is not disclosed, but it appears that the relator is confined in the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City.

The petition discloses that the relator desires to use the record in connection with a petition for a writ of error coram nobis which he intends to file in the Vanderburgh Circuit Court seeking to have the judgment against him vacated. He relies upon State ex rel. Pappas v. Baker, Judge (1935), 209 Ind. 25, 197 N. E. 912, as authority supporting his right to have the transcript of the record furnished him. But that case merely decides that § 4-3511, Burns’ 1933, § 1300, Baldwin’s 1934, requires that the trial court, upon a proper showing, shall cause a longhand manuscript or transcript of the evidence to be furnished to a defendant, at the expense of the county, to be used upon an appeal to this court for a review of the proceedings in the trial court for error. There is nothing in the statute which provides for or requires the furnishing of a transcript of the record or the evidence after final judgment and after the time for an appeal for review for error has passed.

In State ex rel. White v. Hilgemann, Judge (1941), 218 Ind. 572, 34 N. E. (2d) 129, we held that under *152 Section 13 of Article 1 of the Constitution of Indiana the court is required to furnish a pauper defendant with a record which may be used to support an assignment of error on appeal, and furnish him with counsel to perfect an appeal, all at the expense of the county. This was upon the theory that due process requires a fair trial, free from prejudicial error, and the right to a review to correct errors.

But after there is a final judgment unappealed from, and the time for asserting error has passed, the criminal prosecution in which the accused is entitled to be heard by himself and counsel is terminated, and the constitutional provision is no longer operative. “ ‘The writ of error coram nobis is not intended to authorize any court to review and revise its opinions; but only to enable it to recall some adjudication, made while some fact existed which, if before the court, would have prevented the rendition of the judgment, and which, without any fault or negligence of the party, was not presented to the court/ ” Sanders v. State (1882), 85 Ind. 318, 326. It has been said that the petition is in the nature of a motion for a new trial, but it seems that the only similarity is that, like a motion for a new trial, the result sought is a new trial, and that, in considering the evidence brought forward to sustain the motion, the court will take cognizance of and consider the entire record of the original trial. Until a person accused of crime .has been convicted upon a trial free from error which prejudices his substantial rights, it may be said that he is presumed to be innocent and continues to be merely “the accused” person referred to in Section 13 of Article 1 of the Constitution. After he has been convicted, and the judgment has become final, and it has been determined upon appeal that there was no prejudi *153 cial error in the trial, or when the time is past and the right to a review for error has been waived, the defendant is no longer “the accused,” and the “criminal prosecution (s)” is ended. He then stands convicted, and must be presumed to be guilty unless and until he procures the judgment to be vacated. In the prosecution the burden is upon the state to prove that he is guilty of the charge, and the Constitution requires that he be afforded ample means with which to defend himself. After the judgment becomes final, the burden is upon the judgment defendant to establish facts which justify setting the judgment aside.

“The proceeding under a writ of coram nobis or coram vobis is regarded as civil' in its nature, and sometimes as part of the proceedings in the case to which it refers, and sometimes as in the nature of a new adversary suit.” 31 Am. Jur., § 799, p. 322. The statement that it is sometimes a part of the proceedings in the case to which it refers seems to be made upon authority of Berry v. State (1930), 202 Ind. 294, 173 N. E. 705, 72 A. L. R. 1177. In that case the statement was made upon authority of Partlow v. State (1922), 191 Ind. 657, 658, 134 N. E. 483, 484, where it is said: “The application for either writ, as a matter of practice, always has been, and must now be, a part of the proceeding of the case to which it refers; and in regard to the writ coram nobis must be filed -in the court that rendered the judgment.” -No authority is cited. The only question before the court in the Partlow case was whether the petition for the writ would lie in the trial court while the record rested in this court on an appeal. In both of the cases referred to the pertinent statement was that the petition must be filed in the court that rendered the judgment. The question of whether the proceeding was a part of the criminal case or a separate *154 action, civil or equitable in nature, seeking relief from the final judgment, was not involved, and it may be assumed that it was not fully considered by the court.

In Carman et al. v. State (1935), 208 Ind. 297, 196 N. E. 78, we said that the proceeding is not a criminal prosecution, and in Quinn v. State (1936), 209 Ind. 316, 198 N. E. 70, that a coram nobis proceeding is civil in its nature. To the same effect, see State v. Ray (1922), 111 Kan. 350, 207 P. 192. In People v. Dabbs (1939), 372 Ill. 160, 165, 23 N. E. (2d) 343, 346, it is said of their statutory motion which supplants the motion for a writ of error coram nobis: “Such motion or petition is the filing of a new suit and is civil in its nature. . . . This proceeding is not unlike a bill of review to have reviewed a decree in chancery.” And in 24 Corpus Juris Secundum, pp. 144, 145, it is said: “A proceeding for a writ of error coram nobis or its statutory equivalent is in the nature of a new, civil suit, not unlike a bill of review to have reviewed a decree in chancery, . . .” The writ was first recognized by this court in Sanders v. State, supra, in which it is said that, under the facts, there had been in fact a fraud upon the court, and that (page 331 of 85 Ind.) : “. . . surely this entitles him' (the petitioner) to some relief, and under the elementary maxim, that ‘there is no right without a remedy,’ there must be some power to grant relief, and some remedy by which it can be secured.” It was concluded that the common-law writ of coram nobis was available.

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

Related

Ruby v. State
724 A.2d 673 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 1999)
Snelling v. State
337 N.E.2d 829 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1975)
State v. Market
302 N.E.2d 528 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1973)
Jones v. State
252 N.E.2d 572 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1969)
Hathaway v. State
241 N.E.2d 240 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1968)
McCrary v. State
173 N.E.2d 300 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1961)
Etheridge v. State
164 N.E.2d 642 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1960)
Steele v. State
151 A.2d 127 (Supreme Court of Delaware, 1959)
Joseph, Pierce v. State
141 N.E.2d 109 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1957)
Riggs v. State
135 N.E.2d 247 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1956)
Bratton v. State
134 N.E.2d 218 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1956)
United States v. Morgan
346 U.S. 502 (Supreme Court, 1954)
State v. Lindsey
106 N.E.2d 230 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1952)
State v. Marshall
104 N.E.2d 926 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1952)
Green v. State
103 N.E.2d 429 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1952)
People v. Soto Zaragoza
72 P.R. 385 (Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, 1951)
El Pueblo de Puerto Rico v. Soto Zaragoza
72 P.R. Dec. 412 (Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, 1951)
State Ex Rel. McManamon v. Blackford Circuit Court
95 N.E.2d 556 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1950)
United States Ex Rel. Cook v. Dowd, Warden
180 F.2d 212 (Seventh Circuit, 1950)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
41 N.E.2d 601, 219 Ind. 148, 1941 Ind. LEXIS 221, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-cutsinger-v-spencer-judge-ind-1941.