State v. Peel

59 P. 169, 23 Mont. 358, 1899 Mont. LEXIS 115
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 4, 1899
DocketNo. 1,407
StatusPublished
Cited by43 cases

This text of 59 P. 169 (State v. Peel) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana 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. Peel, 59 P. 169, 23 Mont. 358, 1899 Mont. LEXIS 115 (Mo. 1899).

Opinion

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE BRANTLY,

after stating the case, delivered the opinion of the Court.

1. During the selection of the jury, 12 men being in the box, and both parties having passed them for cause, counsel for state waived their fourth peremptory challenge. The defendant thereupon exhausted his seventh and eighth peremptory challenges, the box being filled again after each challenge. Both parties then having passed for cause, counsel for the state were permitted, over the objection of defendant, to peremptorily challenge one Connor, who was in the box at the time the state’s fourth challenge was waived. Connor was ordered to stand aside, and another juror was called to take his place. He was found satisfactory to both sides, and thereupon, the defendant waiving further challenges, the jury were sworn. The action of the court in permitting the challenge of Connor is assigned as error. In State v. Sloan, 22 Mont. 293, 56 Pac. 364, we held that the parties must exercise their right of peremptory challenge alternately, the state exhausting one challenge and the defendant two, until both are satisfied, or their challenges have all been used. The corollary to this rule is that, where either party fails to challenge in his turn he is deemed to waive the challenge or challenges he might use at that time. But the rule goes no further than is necessary to preserve the alternation required by the statute. (Code of Civil Procedure, Section 1059; Penal Code, [363]*363Section 2057.) It does not follow that either party waives any other challenge he may still have. His refusal to challenge may be taken by the court as an announcement that he is satisfied with the jury as then constituted but not that he will be satisfied with it when differently constituted by the change wrought by challenges exercised by the other side. There is no provision of the statute prohibiting either party from thereafter using a challenge upon any juror in the box so long as he has one to use. He may use it as he pleases at any time before the jury is finally accepted and sworn. We think the court was clearly right in overruling the objection, both upon principle and authority. (1 Thompson on Trials, Section 94; People v. Ah You, 47 Cal. 121; Fountain v. West, 23 Iowa 9; People v. Carrier, 46 Mich. 442, 9 N. W. 487; Hamper’s Appeal, 51 Mich. 71, 16 N. W. 236; Kennedy v. Dale, 4 Watts & S. 176; People v. Montgomery, 53 Cal. 576; State v. Pritchard, 15 Nev. 74.)

2. The defense relied on at the trial was insanity. Itiblett, a witness for defendant, was his nearest neighbor, having lived upon a farm adjoining the defendant’s for several years. He was permitted to detail fully his acquaintance and intercourse with the defendant, and his observation of his conduct and condition during his acquaintance with him, particularly with reference to the two years immediately prior to the shooting. This narration included an account of two attacks of illness suffered by defendant — one during the winter of 1896 — 97, and the other during the winter following; his incomplete recovery, and his subsequent feeble and nervous physical condition during the spring of 1898. It also included several conversations with defendant about the behavior of Ennis and his son towards himself, and defendant’s attempts to bring them to punishment, one of which took place two days before the homicide. He also stated that he had heard of the shooting two days after it occurred. He was then asked: “After hearing of the shooting, and taking into consideration the facts that you have testified about, and your long knowledge and acquaintance with Mr. Peel, did you [364]*364have any opinion then, taken in connection with the shooting, as to the condition of his mind at the time of the shooting?” Upon objection by the state, the court refused to permit the witness to answer, on the ground that the opinion of a layman as to the mental condition of the defendant, based in part upon facts not derived from his own observations, is incompetent. To this ruling the defendant excepted. The question is awkwardly expressed, but it was evidently intended that the witness, in giving his opinion, should base it upon his own observation as detailed by him, and also upon his hearsay knowledge of the facts attending the shooting. As the witness was not an expert, the ruling of the court was clearly correct. While the opinions of nonexpert witnesses are often the best and only evidence at hand touching the mental condition of the person on trial, or the validity of whose act is in controversy, the opinion expressed must be founded upon their own observation. (Territory v. Hart, 7 Mont. 489, 17 Pac. 718, and authorities cited; Territory v. Roberts, 9 Mont. 12, 22 Pac. 132; 1 Clevenger, Med. Jur. of Insanity, p. 580.) It is only a person skilled in the particular science, art, or trade concerning which the investigation is had who can be permitted to give an opinion founded upon facts learned from other sources than his own observation. (Code of Civil Procedure, Section 3146.) If he has had an opportunity to observe, he may speak from observation. When he has had no such opportunity, he may hear facts detailed by other witnesses, and express an opinion thereon; or the question may be put to him in hypothetical form, founded upon facts thus detailed. (Lawson on Expert Evidence p. 221, rule 42.) And herein lies the distinction between the office of an expert and that of a layman when called upon in such case for an opinion. If a lay witness may be permitted to include one material fact, or group of facts, learned by hearsay among those derived from his own observation, as in the question under consideration, and to express an opinion thereon, there is no reason why any number of such facts may not be so included. In such case the opinion of the witness, in so [365]*365far as it would be based upon the extraneous facts, would in no respect be different from that of an expert witness, and the important and substantial distinction between the offices of the two would be entirely destroyed. , (Lawson on Expert Evidence, p. 538.) The witness was afterwards permitted to express his opinion as to the mental condition of defendant, basing it upon his own observation. This was within the rule and the defendant has no cause for complaint.

In this connection the court instructed the witness to express the opinion formed by him with reference to his observations of defendant up to and including the time he last saw him. The witness answered in conformity with this direction, expressing the opinion as still retained by him. Fault is found with this action of the court, counsel for defendant contending that the witness should have been allowed to state his opinion as to the mental condition of defendant at the time of the shooting. Here again we think the court was right, because the nonexpert witness should always speak as of the time of his observation. To have allowed this witness to do otherwise would be equivalent to permitting him to give an opinion upon the character of the mental disease, and as to whether it probably continued up to the date of the shooting. The witness could not speak of a condition he did not observe, nor should he be permitted to express an opinion as to the temporary or permanent nature of the disease. This is the province of the expert. (1 Clevenger Med. Jur. of Insanity 588; Blake v. Rourke, 74 Iowa 519, 38 N. W. 392; Denning v. Butcher, 91 Iowa 425, 59 N. W. 69.)

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
59 P. 169, 23 Mont. 358, 1899 Mont. LEXIS 115, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-peel-mont-1899.