State v. Douette

71 P. 556, 31 Wash. 6, 1903 Wash. LEXIS 576
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 28, 1903
DocketNo. 4249
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 71 P. 556 (State v. Douette) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington 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. Douette, 71 P. 556, 31 Wash. 6, 1903 Wash. LEXIS 576 (Wash. 1903).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Anders, J.

— The appellant was charged by an information filed by the prosecuting attorney in the superior court [8]*8in and for Pierce county with, the crime of perjury, alleged' to have been committed on the trial in said court of one A. P. Vance for murder in the first degree, in the month of October, 1901. A warrant was issued upon the information, and thereafter the appellant was arrested and arraigned in open court, and thereupon a motion to set aside the information and a demurrer to the information were interposed by appellant. The motion was denied, and the demurrer overruled, and exception noted, after which a plea of not guilty was entered. When the cause came on for trial by jury, the appellant interposed a challenge to the panel upon the grounds: (1) That the jurors drawn to try the case had not been properly selected by the jury commissioners, and (2) that the law of 1901, providing for the selection of jurors, was unconstitutional and void. This challenge was denied by the court, and a trial was then had, resulting in a verdict of guilty. A motion in arrest of judgment, .and also a motion for a new trial, were filed, and submitted to the court, and both were denied, and thereafter appellant was sentenced to the state penitentiary for a term of ten years. To review this judgment and sentence he has brought the case here on appeal.

It is alleged that the trial court erred: (1) In denying appellant’s motion to quash the information; (2) in overruling his demurrer to the information; and (3) in overruling his objection to the introduction of any testimony in this case. As each of these assignments of error is based on the assumption that the information is insufficient in law, they may properly be considered together; or, in other words, as one assignment.

It is earnestly contended by the learned counsel for appellant that the information is insufficient, for the reason that it does not aver that the crime of murder, for which Vance was tried, was committed in Pierce county, [9]*9or within, the jurisdiction of the superior court of Pierce -county; and it is argued that, in the absence of such averments, it does not appear that the court had jurisdiction of the case of State v. Vance, in which the alleged perjury was committed. The information upon which the appellant was tried, among other things, states:

“That heretofore, to-wit, on the 21st day of October, A. D. 1901, in the superior court of the state of Washington, in and for Pierce county, held at Tacoma on said •day, before William H. • Snell, presiding judge of said ■court, a certain issue in due form and manner joined in •said court between the state of Washington, aforesaid, and one A. P. Vance, upon a certain information then pending in said court against the said A. P. Vance for murder in the first degree, came on to be tried, and was, then and there, in due form of law, tried by a certain jury •of the county, in due manner returned, impaneled, and sworn for that purpose, and that, at and upon the trial ■of said issue, Manuel Douette, of Pierce county, Washington, did then and there appear and was produced as a witness for and on behalf of the said defendant A. P. Vance, upon the trial of the said issue, and the said Manuel Douette was then and there duly sworn, as such witness as aforesaid, before Samuel Walker, who was then .■and there deputy clerk of the said superior court, that the evidence which he should give to the court and jury between the said state of Washington and the said A. P. Vance, the defendant, on the issue then pending, should be the truth, the whole truth and nothing hut the truth, the said Samuel Walker, as such deputy clerk aforesaid, then and there having sufficient and competent power and authority to administer the said oath to the said Manual Douette in that behalf, and the said Manuel Douette being so sworn as aforesaid, it then and there, upon the trial of the said issue, became and was a material inquiry whether the said witness, Manuel Douette, was at Eaton-ville, in Pierce county, state of Washington, on Monday, the second day of September, A. D. 1901, between the ffiours of 1 o’clock and 3 o’clock in the afternoon of said [10]*10day, and saw the defendant A. P. Vance and Charles P. Pranklin, then ánd there fighting, and during said time-then and there saw defendant, A. P. Vance, fire two shots from a revolver in his right hand, and whether the said witness, Manuel Douette, then and there also saw Charles-Williams while the said defendant A. P. Vance and said Pranklin were then and there fighting as aforesaid, come-out and take out of his, the said Williams’, left hand pocket a revolver and start towards the said Vance and Pranklin and then and there.rush upon the said Vance- and Pranklin with a gun in his,, the said Williams’, right hand, as though he, the said Williams, was going to strike-the said Vance and Pranklin, and whether the said witness, Manuel Douette, then and there also saw the said Williams bring the said revolver in his right hand down as if to strike the said Vance and Pranklin with the said revolver, and whether said witness, Manual Douette, then and there, at the time he, the said witness, says he saw the-said Williams bring the said revolver down, he, the said witness, then and there heard a shot and saw the said Vance, Pranklin and Williams all go down at one time; and the said witness, Manuel Douette, did then and there, upon his oath so taken as aforesaid in the said cause,, feloniously, wilfully, falsely, corruptly, knowingly and contrary to such oath, depose and swear, amongst other-things, in substance and to the effect following, that is to say, that he, the said witness, Manuel Douette, was at Eatonville, Pierce county, state of Washington, on Monday, the second day of September, A. D. 1901, between the hours of one and three o’clock in the afternoon of said day, and that he then and there saw two men (meaning-Vance and Pranklin) scuffling or wrestlings and that he-first thought they were skylarking on the porch of a store, and that one of the said men seemed to be pushing the-other man off of the porch, and that while he, the witness Manuel Douette, was so watching the said two men, he saw a man (meaning Charles Williams) come out as if he came-out of the store, and that just as the man came out it seemed like he took out a revolver from his left hand side and started towards the fellows who were skylarking-[11]*11on the porch (¡meaning Vance and Franklin), and just at that time he saw the men who were skylarking (meaning Vance and Franklin) fire two shots; that he, the said witness, Manuel Douette, also then and there saw that it was the nj.an on the opposite side of him (meaning Vance) who fired the said two shots from his right hand, and that he, the said witness, Manual Douette, then and there saw the man who came out and took the revolver from his left hand pocket (meaning Charles Williams) rush on the two men (meaning Vance and Franklin) with a gun in his right hand as if he was going to strike them (meaning Vance and Williams), and that the said man (meaning Charles Williams) brought it down (meaning the gun) as if he was going to strike them (meaning Vance and Franklin), and that as his hand was going down (meaning the hand of Williams) he, the said witness Manuel Douette heard a shot, and that just at that moment he saw them all (meaning Vance, Franklin and Williams) go down at one time. Whereas, in truth and in fact, the said witness Manuel Douette was not at Eatonville, Pierce county, state of Washington, on Monday, the second day of September, A. D.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
71 P. 556, 31 Wash. 6, 1903 Wash. LEXIS 576, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-douette-wash-1903.