State v. Brown

41 P. 1042, 28 Or. 147, 1895 Ore. LEXIS 101
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 14, 1895
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 41 P. 1042 (State v. Brown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Brown, 41 P. 1042, 28 Or. 147, 1895 Ore. LEXIS 101 (Or. 1895).

Opinion

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Moore.

1. Without attempting to discuss the proposition/" contended for, but treating the facts stated in the affidavit as admitted, we shall examine the grand juror’s competency as a question of law. In the formation of the grand jury, the statute, in general terms, provides that from a list containing the names of two hundred persons made from the last preceding assessment roll of the county by the county court, denominated the jury list, (Hill’s Code, §§ 952-956,) thirty-one names shall be drawn, (section 958,) from which number so selected and in attendance upon the circuit court the names of seven shall be drawn to act as grand jurors (section 943); and it is made the duty [151]*151of the court, before accepting a person so drawn as a grand juror, to be satisfied that he is duly qualified to act as such (section 1233); and no challenge is allowed to the panel from which the grand jury is drawn, nor to an individual juror, unless when so made by the court for want of qualification (section 1231). Section 947, Hill’s Code, provides that “a person is not competent to act as a juror unless he be: 1. A citizen of the United States; 2. A male inhabitant of the county in which he is returned, and who has been an inhabitant thereof for the year nest preceding the time he is drawn or called; 3. Over twenty-one years of age; 4. In the possession of his natural faculties and of sound mind. Nor is any person competent to act as a juror who has been convicted of any felony, or a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude. No person shall be summoned as a juror in any circuit court more than once in one year, and it shall be sufficient cause of challenge to any juror called to be sworn in any cause that he has been summoned and attended said court as a juror at any term of said court held within one year prior to the time of such challenge, or that he has been summoned from the bystanders or body of the county and has served as a juror in any cause upon such summons within one year prior to the time of such challenge.” The correct interpretation of this section must be decisive of the alleged error of which the. defendant complains. The object of the legislative assembly in the passage of the latter part of this section was manifestly twofold: First, to relieve a person from performing more than his share of jury duty; and, second, to prevent persons who make a business of sitting on juries, known as professionals, from being called to act as jurors in any cause before the circuit court at intervals of less than. [152]*152one year. The affidavit in support of the motion fails to show that Andrews did not possess all the qualifications prescribed by the statute, or that he had ever been convicted of any felony or misdemeanor involving moral turpitude; so that if he was disqualified to act as a grand juror, his incompetency must have existed by reason of the latter clause of the section under consideration. The phrase, “in any cause,” as used in this section, evidently means a civil or criminal action at issue and ready for trial in a circuit court of this state, and a person “called” to serve as a juror in any such cause would be subject to challenge if he had served as a juror in said court in the trial of any action within one year prior thereto, or had been summoned and attended as a juror within the same period, and a challenge upon that ground must be held sufficient: Wiseman v. Bruns, 36 Neb. 467 (54 N. W. 858). But this provision cannot apply to one who has been drawn as a grand juror, because neither his duty nor oath requires him to be sworn “in any cause,” nor is he required to try an issue of fact before the circuit court. The portion of the section above quoted providing that no person shall be summoned as a juror in any circuit court more than once in one year furnishes an exemption which would doubtless entitle the person drawn as a grand juror to be excused from serving as such upon his own application showing prior service within the year, if made before being sworn; but, as we view the statute, such prior service cannot be made a ground of challenge against him as a grand juror. Nor is this conclusion in contravention of the spirit or purpose of the statute, which is intended to provide impartial and disinterested jurors for the trial of causes; for a grand juror, otherwise qualified, may have a bias for [153]*153or prejudice against a person charged with the commission of a crime, and might have entertained and freely expressed an opinion concerning the guilt or innocence of the accused, and yet, under our statute, neither his bias, prejudice, nor opinion would be a ground of challenge even by the court when impaneling the grand jury. The enumeration of the persons who, under the statute, are incompetent, and the insertion of the phrase “in any cause,” lead us to believe that the challenge prescribed on account of the prior service of a juror is limited to persons called to be sworn as trial jurors, and has no application to members of the grand jury.

2. The court having denied challenges for actual bias submitted by the defendant to James Byron, John Price, L. Ash, John Hancock, L. L. Hurd, J. A. McCallister, J. B. Caulfield, and L. L. Marsters, who were called as grand jurors, he peremptorily challenged the first four, thereby exhausting his right to that class ol challenges; and the others having been impaneled, it is contended that the court erred in denying the said challenges for cause. The evidence of the qualification of these persons to act as jurors having been taken before the court and incorporated in the bill of exceptions, renders an examination of it necessary. James Byron on his voir dire said he had heard what purported to be a statement of the facts in the case, which .he believed to be true; and from this he had formed an opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the accused; that if the facts were as he had heard them, he had a rather decided opinion, which it would require some evidence, at least, to remove; but when asked by the court if he thought he could lay aside any opinion he might have, and decide the case upon [154]*154the evidence produced at the trial, and the law as given him by the court, he answered, “Yes, sir.” The questions propounded to the persons so challenged, and their answers thereto, are almost identical with the questions put to and the answers made by Mr. Byron, except that each had derived his information from the newspaper accounts of the homicide, J. B. Caulfield and L. L. Marsters adding that they had heard others express opinions in reference to the merits of the case. Section 187, Hill’s Code, provides that on the trial of a challenge for actual bias, “although it should appear that a juror challenged has formed or expressed an opinion upon the merits of the cause from what he may have heard or read, such opinion shall not of itself be sufficient to sustain the challenge, but the court must be satisfied from all the circumstances that the juror cannot disregard such opinion, and try the issue impartially.”

In State v. Saunders, 14 Or. 300, (12 Pac.

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Bluebook (online)
41 P. 1042, 28 Or. 147, 1895 Ore. LEXIS 101, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-brown-or-1895.