State v. Irons

18 A.2d 798, 137 Me. 294, 1941 Me. LEXIS 13
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedMarch 18, 1941
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 18 A.2d 798 (State v. Irons) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Irons, 18 A.2d 798, 137 Me. 294, 1941 Me. LEXIS 13 (Me. 1941).

Opinion

Murchie, J.

This case comes to the court on appeal by a respondent convicted in the Superior Court under an indictment alleging rape. Following conviction, he filed a motion for a new trial in the usual form, which was later supplemented by a motion adding to the allegations that the verdict was against the law, the evidence and the weight of the evidence, two additional reasons as follows:

[295]*295“4. Because said defendant did not have time to adequately prepare his defense, because he was notified of the holding of the trial only one day in advance, to wit, Tuesday, the sixteenth day of January, 1940, and said trial was held on the following day, Wednesday, the seventeenth day of January, 1940.
5. Because the said defendant has since the date of the trial made diligent search for new and other evidence, which was impossible for him to do prior to trial because of lack of sufficient time for preparing therefor, and said defendant has discovered one, Ralph W. Cummings, a disinterested person of York, who has knowledge of certain material and appurtenant facts pertaining to the conduct and whereabouts of the defendant at the time the alleged misconduct of the defendant was alleged to have taken place, and in support of said motion and said newly discovered evidence, hereto is annexed the affidavit of said Ralph W. Cummings as to the material evidence for the defendant’s defense, which through no fault of the defendant was not produced at his trial.”

Neither the first supplemental allegation nor the routine declarations of the usual motion for a new trial were pressed by counsel for the respondent. At his insistence that “The sole question ... is the correctness of the . . . ruling on the supplementary motion ... on newly discovered evidence,” in which position counsel for the State joined, we have disregarded technical procedural questions and limited consideration to the single point alleged in paragraph numbered 5 above. It is unfortunate that on this ground also his motion includes a recital that the impossibility of obtaining the new evidence in question was “because of lack of sufficient time for preparing” for the trial (italics ours), since this may seem to relate back to the recital that he did not have time to prepare his defense “because he was notified of the holding of the trial only one day in advance.” The indictment alleges an offense committed on December 3rd and the trial was held on the 17th day of the following month.. The record shows that the respondent was confronted by the parents of the alleged victim the very evening of the event and then definitely accused of the assault so that it is clear by any test that practically one and one-half months were available to him for prep[296]*296aration. The case contains no suggestion that the respondent made any attempt in the Trial Court to secure more time for investigation.

The record contains a full transcript of the testimony taken out before the jury, which returned a verdict of “guilty,” and of that taken out on the supplemental motion. In such a case, as has heretofore been stated by this court, the question must be whether or not the decision of the presiding justice, from which the appeal was taken, was wrong “in view of all the evidence in the case and that presented on the motion.” State v. Dodge, 124 Me., 243, at 246, 127 A., 899, at 901.

London v. Smart, 127 Me., 377, at 379, 143 A., 466, quotes with approval the tests enumerated in Ruling Case Law (20 R. C. L., 290) to be applied to newly discovered evidence to determine whether or not it lays a proper foundation for granting a new trial. These tests are (1) that the evidence is such as will probably change the result if a new trial is granted, (2) that it has been discovered since the trial, (3) that it could not have been discovered before the trial by the exercise of due diligence, (4) that it is material to the issue, and (5) that it is not merely cumulative or impeaching. It may be doubtful if the so-called newly discovered evidence in this case meets the test that it could not have been discovered before the trial by the exercise of due diligence. If the allegations of the first supplemental reason above quoted be interpreted literally, it may appear that the respondent made no effort to prepare his defense until after he was notified that the trial was to be held on the succeeding day, but the record itself, in the evidence taken out before the justice who heard the motion, discloses that it was not in fact discovered until after the trial and creates a reasonable inference that due diligence could not have produced it earlier. Accepting that record as satisfying the two tests of discovery and diligence, it remains only to apply the other three, and for this purpose an analysis of the testimony in the Trial Court is a necessary preliminary.

The record shows that the issue before the jury was clearly and narrowly drawn. Many facts are not in any manner in dispute, and these may be enumerated as follows: The respondent resided in York Village. The victim, whose home was in Eliot, approximately five miles distant from the home of the respondent, had worked in his [297]*297home as a combined domestic and nursemaid for three weeks prior to the event. On each Sunday the respondent had driven her from his home to her own sometime in the afternoon, and had called for her at her home in the middle of the evening. On the day in question, he had taken her to her home around three o’clock in the afternoon, and had arranged to call for her somewhat earlier than usual in order that she might be back at his house in time to permit him and his wife to attend a moving picture show. The victim left her home that evening, her clothing.in proper array, at a time fixed by her and her father as between half past six o’clock and seven, in an automobile which called for her. She returned approximately within an hour, her clothing and person in disorder, in a physical condition, disclosed by the examination of a physician less than two hours after her return, which is consistent with her testimony. The evidence of the physician unquestionably proves that, whether the cause of that condition was rape or an act committed with her consent, and whether or not this respondent was a party to it, the experience through which she had recently passed was the first of its kind in her lifetime.

On these undoubted facts, the issue of guilt or innocence on the part of this respondent depended almost entirely on the testimony of the victim herself, although it may be said that there was some possible corroboration of her story in the testimony of her father, who claimed to identify the motor vehicle in which his daughter left her home shortly before the occurrence as that of the respondent. The testimony of the victim is definite and positive, that the respondent called for her at the prearranged time, and that instead of proceeding to drive her to his home, he drove his automobile into a little-used highway along the line of travel between the two homes and there committed the assault. The verdict necessarily involves a finding that the respondent at the time in question was áway from his home long enough so that he could make two round trips between the two homes, traveling a distance of approximately twenty miles, in addition to the time necessary for the detour and assault.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
18 A.2d 798, 137 Me. 294, 1941 Me. LEXIS 13, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-irons-me-1941.