State v. Steward

323 P.2d 23, 74 Nev. 65, 1958 Nev. LEXIS 94
CourtNevada Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 14, 1958
DocketNos. 4077 and 4087
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 323 P.2d 23 (State v. Steward) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nevada 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. Steward, 323 P.2d 23, 74 Nev. 65, 1958 Nev. LEXIS 94 (Neb. 1958).

Opinion

OPINION

By the Court,

Badt, C. J.:

The state filed an information in Elko County under Nevada’s “in transitu” statute, charging Steward with the crime of murder committed in the state while in a moving van traveling eastward in the state on a trip terminating in Elko County. The district court held the information to be fatally defective in not alleging that the crime was committed in Elko County, and the state [67]*67appealed. Steward seeks to sustain the district court’s ruling on the ground that the in transitu statute violates the constitutional guaranty of a jury trial. We have concluded that the in transitu statute is not in contravention of the constitutional limitation.

Section 3 of Art. I of the Nevada constitution reads: “The right of trial by jury shall be secured to all and remain inviolate forever; * *

The statute referred to as the in transitu statute is NRS 171.040, reading as follows: “When an offense is committed in this state on board a vessel navigating a river, slough, lake or canal, or lying therein, in the prosecution of her voyage, the jurisdiction is in any county through which the vessel is navigated in the course of her voyage, or in the county where the voyage terminates; and when the offense is committed in this state on a railroad train, car, stage or other public conveyance, prosecuting its trip, the jurisdiction is in any county through which the train, car, stage or other public conveyance passes in the course of its trip, or in the county where the trip terminates.”

The information charged: “That the said defendant, Earl Lewis Steward, did on or about the ninth day of September, 1957, in the State of Nevada, and before the filing of this Information, commit a felony, murder, as follows, to-wit: That the said defendant did then and there unlawfully, feloniously, and with malice aforethought, kill one Thomas R. Jessen, by shooting him in the head with a twenty-two calibre pistol. That said offense was committed by the said defendant while in a moving van prosecuting its trip eastward through the State of Nevada on U. S. Highway 50. That said trip terminated at a point in Elko County, Nevada, * *

Respondent contends that the inviolable constitutional rights of trial by jury were those existing at common law at the time of the adoption of the constitution. This court has indeed so held, State v. McClear, 11 Nev. 39; State v. O’Flaherty, 7 Nev. 153. But respondent insists further that one of such fundamental rights so secured was the right to be tried in the county (corresponding with the particular town, neighborhood, village, parish, [68]*68vicinage or visne, as referred to by the English writers) in which the crime occurred, and that this right is violated by the in transitu statute.

Although presented here for the first time in Nevada, the question has received the consideration of a number of the courts of the nation. We may first eliminate from consideration those cases in which the constitutional guaranty was of a jury trial in the county or district where the offense was committed. Such cases are illustrated by Woodward v. Petteway, 123 Fla. 892, 168 So. 806 (right- of trial “in a county where the crime was committed”) ; State v. McDonald, 109 Wis. 506, 85 N.W. 502, 506 (where the guaranty was of trial in any “county or district”) ; State v. Reese, 112 Wash. 507, 192 P. 934, 11 A.L.R. 1018; Craig v. State, 50 Tenn. 227. See also Watt v. People, 126 Ill. 9, 18 N.E; 340, 1 L.R.A. 403. For authoritative precedent we must turn to those states whose respective constitutions correspond with our constitutional guaranty of trial by jury without reference to the venue. It is true that the Supreme Court of Michigan held that the right of trial by jury meant trial in the county where the offense was committed and thus held an in transitu statute unconstitutional. People v. Brock, 149 Mich. 464, 112 N.W. 1116. It relied on an earlier case, Swart v. Kimball, 43 Mich. 443, 5 N.W. 635, which held that one of the essentials of a jury trial was a trial in the county where the alleged offense was committed. It held that an act permitting prosecution for trespass on state land in a county other than that in which the lands were situated was void.

Venue statutes of various kinds, like in transitu statutes, have been from time to time attacked on precisely the same grounds as the attack on our in transitu statute, namely, that they violated one of the fundamental aspects of a constitutional guaranty of a jury trial, to wit, trial in the county where the offense was committed. Consideration of such venue statutes has been along identical lines of consideration of in transitu statutes. We may, therefore, be guided by precedent in the consideration of such venue statutes.

[69]*69As introductory to such consideration we refer generally to the annotator’s note at 11 A.L.K. 1021 to the effect that there would seem to be little doubt, in the absence of all constitutional limitation, that legislation fixing the venue of criminal prosecutions for offenses committed in or upon public conveyances in transitu in a county other than that in which the crime was actually committed would be valid, so that the question resolves itself into one of construction of the various constitutional provisions relating more or less directly to the venue of criminal prosecutions. We have already put aside as affording no precedent cases involving constitutions requiring the venue to be in the county in which the offense was committed.

In People v. Goodwin, 263 Ill. 99, 104 N.E. 1018, the court assumed the constitutionality of the in transitu statute without specifically deciding the point. In People v. Dowling, 84 N.Y. 478, 487, the court held that it was “in the power of the legislature” to enact the statute, although it made no other reference to its constitutionality. The court there said: “The legislature did not declare or define an offense not before known to the law. It permitted a place of trial of known offenses elsewhere than was lawful before the passage of the act. It was in the power of the legislature so to do.” In Nash v. State, 2 G. Greene 286 (Iowa) ; People v. Hulse, 3 Hill 309 (New York); and Commonwealth v. Brown, 71 Pa. Super. Ct. 575, the statute was applied, but the question of its constitutionality was not referred to.

State v. Pace, 129 Conn. 570, 29 A.2d 755, 756, involved a statute providing that violation of the act could be prosecuted before any court of the state “in the same manner as if such offense had been committed within the territorial jurisdiction of such court.” The court said: “Our constitution, unlike those of some states, contains no provisions restricting the place of trial of persons accused of crime * * *. The right of one accused of crime to have a fair and impartial trial has been the basis of Anglo-Saxon criminal jurisdiction ever since Magna Carta. But that has never been regarded as [70]*70involving as a necessary element the requirement that in all cases an accused be tried within the county or other territorial jurisdiction within which the offense was committed.” The court then refers to Blackstone’s statement that accusations of murder might be tried by the king’s special commission in any shire or place in England.

In People v. Hetenyi, 277 App. Div. 310, 98 N.Y.S.2d 990, affirmed 301 N.Y.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
323 P.2d 23, 74 Nev. 65, 1958 Nev. LEXIS 94, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-steward-nev-1958.