State v. Anderson

66 So. 966, 136 La. 261, 1914 La. LEXIS 1938
Supreme Court of Louisiana·Decided December 14, 1914·No. No. 20932·Published·Cited by 15 cases

Opinion

MONROE, O. J.

Defendant prosecutes this appeal from a conviction of burglary, in the nighttime, with intent to steal, and a sentence of imprisonment at hard labor and fine, and he presents his case to this court by means of certain bills of exception, which will be considered in the order in which they were reserved, to wit:

[1] 1. The indictment was brought in on March 23, 1914, and defendant was arraigned and pleaded on the following day, and the case was then assigned for trial on March 30th, when, “by .agreement of counsel,” it was reassigned for April 1st, upon which day it was reassigned for April 2d, when defendant moved for a continuance, on the ground that he had not been served with a copy of the indictment, and the motion was sustained. On September 28th, “accused being present in open court and having been arraigned and pleaded not guilty, the. case was assigned for Thursday, October Sth.” On September 29th, domicile service of copies of the indictment and venire were made on defendant’s wife. On October 8th, at defendant’s request, and by order of Judge Le Blanc, then presiding, the case was reassigned for October 10th, upon which day it was called for trial by Judge Schwing, then presiding, whereupon defendant objected to going to trial on the ground that the case had been reassigned for trial before Judge Le Blanc, which objection was overruled, for the following reasons (as stated by Judge Schwing), to wit:

“The accused was arraigned and his case was fixed for trial before me. On the day that the case was called up, I was absent, in Pointe Coupee, on official business. A continuance was granted by Judge Le Blanc, and I tried the case on the day fixed.”

' The impaneling of the jury then began, and, after ten jurors had been accepted, defendant moved for a continuance on the ground that the service of the copy of the indictment had not been personal, which motion was denied, as coming too late.

There was no error in the rulings so made. The court has two judges; the one is as competent to preside in any given ease as the other; and this case was not reassigned to be tried by Judge Le Blanc but to be tried by the court.

This court has construed R. S. 992, to mean that the service of the copy of indictment, there provided for, shall be made on the party indicted, personally, and that domiciliary service is insufficient. State v. Stewart, 47 La. Ann. 425, 16 South. 945. It is, however, well settled that the right to such service may be waived, and under the English rule, though not under our law, it has been held to be waived, if not asserted, before the arraignment and plea. State v. Howell, 3 La. Ann. 50. In State v. Guidry, 27 La. Ann. 206, defendant objected to the impaneling of the jury because he had not been served two days before the trial, and the objection was held to have been made in time; and the ruling in State v. Finn, 43 La. Ann. 896, 9 South. 498, was to the same effect. The case now under consideration had once been set down for trial by agreement, and, upon the day upon which it was finally tried, defendant, upon the overruling of his first objection, announced that he was ready for trial, and thereafter participated in the selection of ten jurors before he made the objection that the service of the copy of the indictment had not been personal; there being no pretension that the copy, served at his domicile more than ten days before, had not reached him. We are of opinion that, under the circumstances, the objection must be considered to have been waived and was properly overruled.

[2] 2. It is shown by the next bill that, after ten jurors had been selected, the regular panel was exhausted; that the judge directed the clerk to draw 15 names from the [265] tales jury box, and directed the sheriff to summon the bearers; that a list of the names was accordingly delivered to the sheriff and a similar list to defendant’s counsel, and that the court then took a recess for about two hours and a half, at the expiration of which it reconvened, and the sheriff reported that five of the jurors, whom he had been directed to summon, were in the courtroom, and another elsewhere in the building; that the names upon the list were then called, and five jurors responded; that defendant, through counsel, then objected to proceeding further with the selection'of the jurors until the others named on the list should be shown to be present or otherwise accounted for, which objection having been overruled, the bill was reserved.

The statement per curiam, incorporated in the bill, reads as follows:

“Of the 15 tales jurors drawn by the clerk, the sheriff informed me that 4 had removed from the parish. Seven answered to their names when called for examination. The sheriff informed me that he was not in a position to make returns as to the other 4. * * * Only 2 jurors were needed to complete the panel, and the jury was completed from those present. Plow the accused could have been possibly injured is not apparent.”

The purpose of Act 182 of 1914 (amending section 11 of Act 135 of 1898) was undoubtedly to substitute, for the existing method of obtaining tales jurors, under certain conditions, another method, agreeably- to which the jury commission is required to select, in addition to the regular venire, 100 tales jurors and place their names in a separate box, from which they are to be drawn when needed, thus taking the matter of their selection, in any particular case, from the control of the sheriff. The statute, however, reads, in part, as follows:

“If on the trial of any criminal case the regular venire is exhausted, or it appears that it will be exhausted, before the selection of the jury therein, the court shall instruct the clerk to open such tales jury box and draw therefrom such number of tales jurors as in its judgment may be necessary to serve on said case, and it shall be the duty of the sheriff to forthwith summon such tales jurors * * * and it shall be the duty of such tales jurors, so summoned, to report immediately, * * * and no tales jurors shall be summoned or be permitted to serve on such jury except as so drawn,” etc.

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State v. Anderson, 66 So. 966, 136 La. 261, 1914 La. LEXIS 1938 (La. 1914).

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