State v. Martin

164 P. 500, 49 Utah 346, 1917 Utah LEXIS 118
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 23, 1917
DocketNo. 2928
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 164 P. 500 (State v. Martin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah 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. Martin, 164 P. 500, 49 Utah 346, 1917 Utah LEXIS 118 (Utah 1917).

Opinion

FEICK, C. J.

The defendant was convicted of the crime of robbery, was sentenced to the state prison, and appeals.

' The state filed a motion to strike the bill of exceptions upon the ground that it was not served within the time required by our statute and that for that reason the district [348]*348court was without authority to settle and allow the same.

1 "We have frequently held that, unless the proposed bill of exceptions is served and allowed within the time fixed by our statute, or within such an extension of that time as may, on proper application therefor, be fixed by the district court, then that court loses jurisdiction or power to settle and allow the same, and that this court may not consider a bill not settled and allowed within proper time for any purpose. Butter v. Lamson, 29 Utah 439, 82 Pac. 473; Bryant v. Kunkel, 32 Utah 377, 90 Pac. 1079; Ins. Agency v. Investment Co., 35 Utah 542, 101 Pac. 699; Metz v. Jackson, 43 Utah 496, 136 Pac. 784; Allen v. Garner, 45 Utah 39, 143 Pac. 228. The question therefore is: Was the bill of exceptions in question served and allowed within the proper time?

2 Our statute (Comp. Laws 1907, section 4946) provides that bills of exceptions in criminal cases ‘ ‘ shall be settled, signed and filed as provided by law in civil cases.” Section 3286 provides that in civil cases the party desiring to settle a bill of exceptions must prepare and serve his proposed bill on the adverse party “within thirty days after the entry of judgment * * * or (within thirty days) after service of notice of the determination of a motion for a new trial.” The district courts may, however, for good cause shown, extend the time in case an extension is applied for within the thirty-day period aforesaid, or at any time before a previous extension has expired. See bases above cited. The motion for a new trial in the case at bar was denied on December 11, 1915. The statutory time within which to prepare and serve a bill therefore expired on January 10, 1916. On January 3, 1916, the defendant applied for and was granted thirty days’ “additional time within which to prepare and serve” his proposed bill of exceptions. That extension gave him to the tenth day of February, 1916, within which to prepare and serve his proposed bill of exceptions.' On February 10, 1916, he obtained another extension of thirty days. The time was thus extended to March 11, 1916. The defendant’s proposed bill of exceptions was actually served on February 23, 1916, and was settled and allowed by the district [349]*349court on March 9, 1916. The bill was therefore served, settled, and allowed and filed within proper time, and hence the motion to strike the same must be denied.

We now proceed to a consideration of the merits of the appeal.

Defendant’s counsel, in their brief, state the matters to be reviewed by us. in the following terms:

“The defendant was indicted upon a charge of robbery. Upon trial he was convicted. He appeals, and urges that reversible errors were committed by the trial court in three general particulars, viz.: (1) In the admission of testimony, pertaining to conversations; (2) in the admission of testimony, pertaining to identity; and (3) by the court taking into consideration circumstances, upon which it based the quantity of penalty inflicted, in direct violation of the statutes pertaining thereto.”

3 The first assignment arises as follows: The defendant was charged with robbery alleged to have been committed on the 28th day of October, 1911. On the trial of the cause, however, the state produced evidence tending to show that the defendant had written certain letters in which he connected himself with a certain attempted robbery, which was attempted on the 11th day of August, 1911. The alleged robbery last above referred to was attempted at the same place and upon the same person as was the robbery in this case, and the contents of the letters referred to clearly indicated that the person attempting the commission of that robbery was the same person who it was alleged committed the robbery in question, and that it was committed at the same place and upon the same person. The letters were offered by the state merely as a means of identifying the person who it was alleged committed the robbery in question here. If the defendant wrote the letters in question, and the jury found that he did write them, then the contents of •those letters clearly identified the defendant as the person who committed the robbery in question. The transaction of August 11, 1911, was therefore not offered nor admitted for the purpose of showing that the defendant had in fact committed or attempted to commit another independent crime [350]*350or offense, but both the letters and what occurred on that occasion were offered and admitted only as a means of identifying the defendant and to connect him with the offense charged; and we can conceive no good reason, and none is suggested, why the letters and the evidence which is objected to were not admissible for that purpose. That the evidence and letters were admissible for that purpose is well settled. Wharton, Crim. Ev. (10th Ed.) p. 133 et seq., and cases cited; People v. Harben, 5 Cal. App. 29, 91 Pac. 398.

4 It is further contended that the district court erred in admitting in evidence certain writings as standards of comparison which the state proved had been written by the defendant. This assignment is based on the following facts: The state had in its possession a large number of letters which it was contended were written by the defendant, and which, if written by him, contained very strong, if not conclusive, evidence that he had committed the offense charged against him. The authenticity of the letters was disputed by the defendant, and the state' produced the writings in question as standards of comparison and submitted them to certain experts on handwriting who testified that in their opinion the letters in question were written by the same person who had written the writings that were used as standards of comparison which were produced by the state', and which it was shown, without dispute, the defendant had written. Counsel for defendant insists that the district court erred in admitting in evidence the standards of comparison aforesaid and in permitting the handwriting of the defendant to be used as a standard of comparison which was not in the case for some other legitimate purpose. It is not necessary for us at this time' to again r'eview the conflicting views of the courts upon this proposition and the conditions under'which such views arise. That was sufficiently done in the case of Smith v. Hanson, 34 Utah 171, 96 Pac. 1087, 18 L. R. A. (N. S.) 520. The question raised and discussed by counsel was considered and decided against their contention in the case just referred to. In that case, after giving the subject careful consideration, we explicitly held that a writing that is proved to the satisfaction of the court to be the handwrit[351]*351ing of the person whose handwriting is in dispute, when such writing was made under ordinary and proper conditions, may be used by both the experts on handwriting and the jury as a standard of comparison. We are content with the conclusion there reached upon this subject, and hence refrain from pursuing the subject further.

5

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Irvin v. State
940 So. 2d 331 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 2005)
Moore v. State
697 So. 2d 800 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1996)
Nicks v. State
521 So. 2d 1018 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1987)
State v. Cunico
462 P.2d 720 (Utah Supreme Court, 1969)
State v. McHenry
323 P.2d 710 (Utah Supreme Court, 1958)
United States v. Sacher
182 F.2d 416 (Second Circuit, 1950)
In Re Peterson
48 P.2d 468 (Utah Supreme Court, 1935)
Findlay v. National Union Indemnity Co.
38 P.2d 760 (Utah Supreme Court, 1934)
In Re Yowell's Estate
285 P. 285 (Utah Supreme Court, 1930)
Yowell v. Ogden State Bank
285 P. 285 (Utah Supreme Court, 1930)
Independent Gas & Oil Co. v. Beneficial Oil Co.
266 P. 267 (Utah Supreme Court, 1928)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
164 P. 500, 49 Utah 346, 1917 Utah LEXIS 118, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-martin-utah-1917.