State v. Quirk

112 N.W. 409, 101 Minn. 334, 1907 Minn. LEXIS 569
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedJune 14, 1907
DocketNos. 15,154-(17)
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 112 N.W. 409 (State v. Quirk) 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. Quirk, 112 N.W. 409, 101 Minn. 334, 1907 Minn. LEXIS 569 (Mich. 1907).

Opinion

ELLIOTT, J.

The appellant was indicted by the grand jury of Hennepin county for murder in the first degree, and was convicted of manslaughter im the first degree. The appeal is from an order denying his motion fora new trial.

The assignments of error question the legality of certain proceedings-in connection with the impaneling of the jury, the exclusion of a certain, person from the courtroom, certain instructions given to the jury, and the extent to which the county attorney was permitted to cross-examine-the defendant with reference to his former occupations and modes of" life.

1. The proceedings by which the twelve men who served on the jury were inducted into the jury box were decidedly irregular, and would be-ground for reversal, if it did not clearly appear from the record that the defendant waived the most serious departures from the statutory requirements, and that in no respect was he prevented from having the-question of his guilt or innocence determined by an impartial jury. The-jury was accepted by the defendant at a time when he had fourteen, unused peremptory challenges. He must have been satisfied that the-jurors were fair and impartial men, and nothing appears to even suggest that such was not the fact.

Before the revised laws of 1905 went into effect, the jurors in Hennepin county were selected in the manner provided by chapter 151, p.. 154, Laws 1899, and the various panels as needed were drawn as authorized by chapter 240, p. 273, Laws 1899. Chapter 151 required the judges, during December of each year, to select two thousand names of jurors for service during the succeeding year, and this cohstituted the-“grand list” from which panels for short terms of service were selected throughout the year. The grand list for the entire year of 1906 was-thus made up in December, 1905. The revised laws of 1905, which went into effect March 1, 1906, repealed chapter 151, p. 154, Laws 1899, and left Hennepin county without a jury law. On January 1, 1907, the-[336]*336grand list for 1906 became obsolete. A new law was passed on January 18, 1907. Chapter 2, Laws 1907. This case was called for trial on January 14, 1907. It is fair to assume that the court and counsel knew that the old law had been repealed, and that by consent of all •parties the jurors were drawn from what remained of the 1906 list. Provisions for the selection of jurors are statutory, and are generally held to be directory merely. In the face of objections, the state must show substantial compliance; but such requirements are not constitutional provisions, and there is no reason why they may not be waived by a defendant.

No challenge was interposed to the panel. “A challenge to the panel is an objection made to all the petit jurors returned, and may be taken by either party. It can be founded only on a material departure from the forms prescribed by law in respect to the drawing and return of the jury, and shall be taken before a jury is sworn, and be in writing, specifying plainly and distinctly the facts constituting the ground of challenge.” R L. 1905, § 5383. The defendant interposed no challenge to the panel, and thereby waived any objections to the jury as a whole. Steele v. Malony, 1 Minn. 257 (347). No question is raised in the record as to the proceedings by which the list of jurors was secured. But the appellant does contend that the statute with reference to the drawing of the jury was not complied with and that he was deprived of rights which are secured to him by the statutes. Under the system of procedure in Hennepin county, where six judges and as many courts must be kept going, it is customary, when a case is called for trial, to draw the names of eighteen jurors from the box and send the jurors whose names are thus drawn to a courtroom where the case is to be tried. The jury is then drawn from this list of eighteen names. The next jury is then drawn from the names which remain in the box. In this c&se the jury was drawn from the box after eighteen names had been withdrawn. The defendant demanded that the names of all the jurors in attendance be placed in the box. What occurred, as shown by the record, is thus stated by the trial judge:

Eighteen jurors out of the regular panel of jurors which reported in this court this morning were drawn, and those jurors were directed to report to Judge Simpson for the purpose of im[337]*337paneling a jury in the case of State v. Berglof. The next case reached for trial in its order upon the calendar was State v. John P. Quirk, the defendant here, which is No. 32 on the criminal calendar. The remainder of the jurors drawn and reporting to serve at this time were directed to report to be drawn as jurors in this case. Upon those facts the objection will be overruled.

The jury law would seem to require that the names of all the jurors not serving on other cases should be in the box, but such procedure is not always possible in a county such as Hennepin. It would have been well to have complied with defendant’s request in a case of this importance, in order to have reduced the possibility of error to a minimum. But the eighteen jurors were in a general sense serving on another case, and, as the jury in this case was actually drawn from the box in the way prescribed by statute, the liberal construction which should be given such requirements leads us to the conclusion that no substantial error was committed. Thomas v. State, 134 Ala. 126, 33 South. 130; 24 Cyc. 254. ' '

After several jurors had been accepted, it became apparent that it would not be possible to secure the other jurors from the names which remained in the box. Chapter 240, p. 273, Paws 1899 (which was not repealed), provides that, “if there be a deficiency of petit jurors, the ■clerk shall in open court, under the direction of the judge, draw from the box containing-the names on the petit jury list [the grand list] the names of additional persons to supply such deficiency, and writs of venire facias shall issue summoning such persons,” etc. Proceeding under this statute, a special -venire issued, and the new panel thus obtained was returned. It is not necessary that there shall be an entire absence of jurors before a special venire can be issued. The-additional jurors may be summoned in anticipation of the exhaustion of the regular panel. People v. Durrant, 116 Cal. 179, 48 Pac. 75; Lambright v. State, 34 Fla. 564, 16 South. 582; Foster’s Case, 13 Abb. Pr. (N. S.) 372, note. Regular procedure required that the new names should not have been placed in the box until all the names were withdrawn, and a contrary practice has been held to be reversible error. Hall v. State, 28 Tex. App. 146, 12 S. W. 739. But we can[338]*338not see how defendant was prejudiced because the names of the new panel were put in the box while eight of the old list were still there. Had these names been withheld, the personnel of the jury might have been different. Even this is conjecture. No defendant is entitled to be tried by any particular juror or jurors. He is entitled to a fair and impartial jury, composed of eligible men. This the appellant had in this case. The statute was not strictly followed; but the defendant expressed himself as satisfied with the twelve men, and he does not even now suggest that the jury was not fair and impartial.

2. During the examination of the state’s witness Bessie Squires, the court excluded the defendant’s wife, the mother of the witness, from the courtroom. No reason for this order appears in the record.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
112 N.W. 409, 101 Minn. 334, 1907 Minn. LEXIS 569, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-quirk-minn-1907.