State v. Shepphard

58 P. 868, 23 Mont. 323, 1899 Mont. LEXIS 108
Montana Supreme Court·Decided November 6, 1899·No. No. 1,417·Published·Cited by 15 cases

Opinion

MR. JUSTICE HUNT

delivered the opinion of the Court.

[324] The defendant, Charles Shepphard, was convicted of murder in the second degree, for the deliberate killing of John Benson, at Deer Lodge county, on"or about November 6, 1898. He appeals from the judgment and from an order overruling his motion for a new trial.

The principal error pressed upon our consideration is the alleged insufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict. This Court cannot say, though, that the evidence did not justify the verdict and order of the court denying a new trial. There is a presumption obtaining that the district court acted in obedience to the rules of law, and that its decision that there was evidence sufficient to sustain the conviction rested upon a proper foundation. An appellant, relying upon the ground of insufficiency of evidence to justify a verdict, is in duty bound to make up his record so that it'will affirmatively show all the material facts, or the substance thereof, upon which he predicates his assignment; that is, the appellant assumes to remove the reasonable intendments or presumptions which favorably accompany the action of the trial court. (People v. Williams, 45 Cal. 25.)

It is well established that, where the error relied on is the insufficiency of the evidence to justify the verdict, the entire evidence, or its substance, which is material, should be before the appellate court, to enable it to say whether or not the order denying a new trial was erroneously made. (People v. Leong Sing, 77 Cal. 117, 19 Pac. 254.) This being so, it is the duty of an appellant to see to it that his bill of exceptions contains, not only all the material evidence, or the substance thereof, but that that fact is properly certified to by the district judge who certifies to the bill, or that the bill of exceptions itself shows that the evidence therein contained and set forth is all the evidence had on the trial material to the illustration of the alleged insufficiency thereof to justify the verdict. Where the judge’s certificate is relied on, we think it sufficient if it uses any language by which it clearly appears that the bill contains all the evidence, or so much thereof as is necessary to demonstrate the point relied on, and that there need [325] be no adherence to any precise words in the certificate of that fact. (People v. Henchler, 137 Ill. 580, 27 N. E. 602; Brock v. State, 85 Ind. 397; Grisell v. Noel Bros,’ Flour-Feed Co., 9 Ind. App. 251, 36 N. E. 452; Jones v. Layman, 123 Ind. 569, 24 N. E. 363.) Where the bill of exceptions itself is relied on to show the insufficiency of the evidence, it should either set forth in express language that all the evidence, or the substance thereof, or so much thereof as is necessary to illustrate the point relied on, is all incorporated in the bill, or it should contain statements equivalent to such expressions, or it should show a whole connected narrative, so constructed that it clearly appears that all the material evidence, or the substance thereof, is incorporated in the bill.

The practice in this state, though not uniform, in pursuing one of the two methods required, is yet quite consistent in observance of the essentials of whichever mode is selected. For instance, on examination of the transcript, we find that at the conclusion of the testimony in the case of Hamilton v. Great Falls Street Railway Co., 17 Mont. 334, 42 Pac. 860, and 43 Pac. 713, appear the words: “The foregoing was all the evidence in the case,” — a form to be commended; so, in the original record in the case of State ex rel. Pigott v. Benton, 13 Mont. 306, 34 Pac. 301, at the close of the testimony and admissions, these words appear: “And this was all the evidence;” and in Bonner v. Minnier et al., 13 Mont. 269, 34 Pac. 30, the transcript discloses that these words were used: “The foregoing was all the testimony and evidence introduced by the parties upon the trial of the cause,” — any one of which forms obviously secures certainty, and enables this Court to determine that all the evidence is in the record. Where the bill of exceptions itself is not certain, an example of a good form of certificate by the judge is found in the case of State v. Sloan, 22 Mont. 293, 56 Pac. 364, where Judge Armstrong certified that “the foregoing bill of exceptions is full, true, and correct, and that it contains all the evidence introduced and .offered * * * oon the trial of said cause. ”

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State v. Shepphard, 58 P. 868, 23 Mont. 323, 1899 Mont. LEXIS 108 (Mo. 1899).

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