State v. Gardner

92 N.W. 529, 88 Minn. 130, 1902 Minn. LEXIS 715
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedDecember 19, 1902
DocketNos. 12,280-(19)
StatusPublished
Cited by59 cases

This text of 92 N.W. 529 (State v. Gardner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Gardner, 92 N.W. 529, 88 Minn. 130, 1902 Minn. LEXIS 715 (Mich. 1902).

Opinion

START, C. J.

The defendant was indicted and convicted in the district court of the county of Hennepin of the crime of accepting a bribe of |500 on November 17, 1901, upon the agreement that, as a police officer of the city of Minneapolis, he would not arrest or prosecute Lincoln G. Crossman and William Edwards, from whom the bribe was received, but would permit them, without arrest or prosecution, to ply within the city their confidence games of three-card [132]*132monte and other tricks and devices for swindling the unwary, and that he would also influence the police of the city to permit them so to do. He was sentenced, upon a verdict of guilty,, to-serve a term of six years in the state prison, and he appealed from an order denying his motion for a new trial.

One hundred and thirteen errors are assigned, but we find it necessary to consider only those which raise these questions:

(a) Did the trial court err in its ruling as to the defendant’s, affidavit of prejudice on the part of the trial judge?

(b) Was it error to deny the defendant’s motion to quash the indictment on the ground that he was compelled to give testimony before the grand jury touching the charge- alleged in the-indictment?

(c) Does the indictment charge a public offense?

(d) Did the court err in it,s rulings on the admission of certain evidence offered by the state?

1. The indictment was dated May 15, 1902, and returned into-court the next day, but on what day the charge against the defendant was investigated by the grand jury does not appear by the record. The defendant was arraigned and given until May-22 to plead. On May 20 he presented to the presiding judge in charge of the criminal calendar for the term an affidavit to the effect that on account of prejudice or bias of four of the six judges of the district court, naming each of them, including the presiding-judge, he had good reason to believe, and did believe, that he could not have a fair trial. Thereupon the presiding judge made an order assigning the case to another judge of the district, who-was one of the judges so named in the affidavit. The defendant then presented a separate affidavit of prejudice on the part of the judge to whom the case was so assigned. This affidavit was. ignored by such presiding judge; that is, he in legal effect ruled that the making of the affidavit did not incapacitate him to try the case. The defendant claims that this was error, for the reason that the making of the affidavit ipso facto disqualified the judge against whom it was made.

The state, on the other hand, claims that the defendant, having-made and presented to the presiding judge in charge of the crim[133]*133inal calendar an affidavit of prejudice against him, and thereby secured the transfer of the case to another judge, exhausted his right under the statute, and could not so incapacitate one after another of all of the judges secured to try the case until he found a judge satisfactory to him, or the list of the district judges of the state was exhausted.

The solution of the question depends upon the construction to be given to Laws 1895, c. 306, entitled “An act to enable parties to actions in the district court in this state to secure an impartial judge to hear and preside at the trial of said actions.” The act provides that in any civil action in the district court of this state, if any party thereto, not less than six days before the first day of the term at which the action is noticed for trial, shall make and file with the presiding judge, and serve it on the opposite party or his attorney, an affidavit that on account of prejudice or bias on the part of the presiding judge he has good reason to believe and does believe that he cannot have a fair trial of the action, another judge of the same or another district shall be secured to try the action.

“On making and filing with the presiding judge such an affidavit by the defendant in a criminal action not less than two days before the expiration of the time allowed to him by law to prepare for trial, some other judge shall likewise be secured to preside at the trial of said action and said presiding judge shall in either of such cases be incapacitated to try said action: provided, if the judge against whom said affidavit is filed in a criminal action shall so order, the place of trial of said action may be changed to another county or judicial district so as to secure a speedy trial before another judge. Provided, that in districts having more than one judge the affidavit above provided for may be filed within one day after it is ascertained which judge is to preside at the trial. Provided, that this act shall not apply to any judicial district in this state having less than three district judges.”

This statute is in some respects crudely drawn, and its meaning is not quite clear as to the question here under consideration. It gives a right not before possessed by parties to actions in the district court, and it must be interpreted with reference to the existing law at the time of its passage. The only statute then in [134]*134existence as to the disqualification of a judge to hear a cause was G. S. 1894, § 4838, which provided that:

“No judge of any of the courts of record of this state shall sit in any cause in which he is interested either directly or indirectly, or in which he would be excluded from sitting as a juror.”

The interest which disqualifies a judge under this statute is a pecuniary interest in the event of the action, and not an interest of feeling, or sympathy, or bias that would disqualify a juror; otherwise a judge who had tried a case would be disqualified to hear a motion for a new trial, or to again try the cause in case a new trial was ordered by him or by this court, for necessarily a judge who has once tried a cause has some feeling, opinion, or belief as to its merits. Sjoberg v. Nordin, 26 Minn. 501, 5 N. W. 677.' The result of this interpretation of the statute was that ai party to an action who honestly believed that the judge who was to try his cause was so prejudiced that a fair trial could not be had before him had no practical remedy, and Laws 1895, c. 306, was enacted to afford him such a remedy.

In determining whether it was the legislative purpose by this remedial law to place in the hands of a defendant in a criminal case the power to prevent any trial of his case by disqualifying by an affidavit of prejudice every judge in the state who might be secured to try his case, it is proper to take into consideration G. S. 1894, § 7313, which provides for one change of venue of a criminal case, and no more, where it is made to appear that a fair trial cannot be had in the county where the offense was committed. If it is the legislative policy that there shall be but one change of venue in a criminal case, for the reason that, without such limitation, the right might be abused, and the administration of justice greatly embarrassed thereby, why should not the same limitation be applied to a change of judges? Is it reasonable to suppose that the legislature,'in remedying a defect in an existing law, intended to give to a person charged with a crime the power, if he is willing to make affidavits to order, to disqualify to try his case one after another all the district judges of the state? If the law so provides in terms so clear as to admit of no [135]*135other reasonable construction, it must be given effect accordingly; otherwise not.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
92 N.W. 529, 88 Minn. 130, 1902 Minn. LEXIS 715, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-gardner-minn-1902.