State v. Stoddard

257 N.W. 479, 65 N.D. 238, 1934 N.D. LEXIS 191
CourtNorth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 28, 1934
DocketCr. File No. 118.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 257 N.W. 479 (State v. Stoddard) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering North Dakota 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. Stoddard, 257 N.W. 479, 65 N.D. 238, 1934 N.D. LEXIS 191 (N.D. 1934).

Opinion

*240 Christianson, J.

Tbe defendant was convicted in tbe district court of Ward County of the crime of engaging in tbe liquor traffic. He moved for a new trial. Tbe motion was denied and be appeals from tbe judgment of conviction and from tbe order denying a new trial.

Tbe errors assigned divide themselves into two basic classes: (1) Tbe denial of a challenge to tbe jury panel; and (2) rulings in tbe admission (and submission to tbe jury) of certain evidence which, it is asserted, related to tbe commission of an alleged offense other than that for which tbe defendant was on trial. These propositions will be considered in tbe order stated.

(1) At tbe opening of tbe trial and before any juror bad been called tbe defendant moved that tbe jury panel be quashed on tbe ground that tbe board of county commissioners of Ward county bad apportioned seventy-four as tbe number of names to be selected from tbe city of Minot of the two hundred persons to be placed upon tbe jury list, under § 817, Comp. Laws 1913; that the proper officers of the city of Minot, thereafter, conformable to law, did select and certify the names of twenty-three persons to be placed upon tbe jury list so as to bring tbe number of names on the jury list from tbe city of Minot up to tbe prescribed number; but that tbe trial judge entered an order to the effect that tbe names bad not been selected in the manner prescribed by tbe law and that, consequently, tbe list should be returned' to tbe city auditor with tbe direction that the names be selected according to law; that, consequently,’at tbe time tbe panel of tbe jury then in attendance was'drawn tbe jury box did not contain seventy-four names from the city of Minot but contained only fifty-one names. The trial court denied the motion to quash and error is predicated on this ruling.

Tbe assignment of error is not well founded. There is no contention that there was any fraudulent or wrongful purpose in excluding from tbe jury box the names of any prospective jurors from tbe city of Minot. There is no showing that any prejudice resulted to the defendant. Reduced to its last analysis the contention of tbe appellant is that his challenge to tbe panel should have been sustained because there were not two hundred names in tbe jury box and that tbe jury box, instead of containing tbe full number of seventy-four names allotted to tbe city of. Minot, contained only fifty-one names, owing to tbe fact that the trial judge bad ruled that tbe twenty-three names certified bad not been *241 chosen in the manner prescribed by law. The record does not disclose that there was any difficulty in obtaining a fair and impartial trial jury. It does disclose that the defendant did not exercise all of his peremptory challenges.

The facts established here do not constitute a ground for challenge to the panel.

“A challenge to the panel can be founded only on a material departure from the forms prescribed by law, in respect to the drawing and return of the jury, or on the intentional omission of the sheriff to summon one or more of the jurors drawn.” Comp. Laws 1913, § 10,792. Furthermore, in the circumstances disclosed here there is no basis for assigning error in the selection or drawing of the jury panel.
“It-is ordinarily held that, if a competent jury is obtained without exhausting the peremptory challenges of the objecting party, he cannot avail himself of any error or irregularity in the summoning or selection of the jury, or in the action of the court in refusing to sustain a challenge to the array, or motion to quash the venire, or in excusing or not excusing jurors, or rejecting and discharging jurors of its own motion for insufficient cause.” 35 C. J. 372.

(2) The information in this case charged:

“That heretofore, to-wit: On the 21st day of May in the year of our Lord, One Thousand Nine Hundred and Thirty-two, at the Oounty of Ward, in said State of North Dakota, one Ira Stoddard late of said County of Ward and State aforesaid, did commit the crime of engaging-in the Liquor Traffic committed as follows, to-wit:
“That at the said time and place the said Ira Stoddard, did wilfully, unlawfully, within the State of North Dakota manufacture, sell, barter, transport, import, deliver, furnish and possess intoxicating liquor, to-wit, alcohol, beer, and whiskey.”

The sheriff of Ward county testified that on the evening of May 21, 1932, he, together with two federal prohibition agents, went to the defendant’s residence in the city of Minot, made a search and found therein eight cases of beer, three gallons of alcohol, thirteen gallons-of moonshine, and four quarts and one pint of Canadian whiskey. The defendant was not there at the time the search was made and the liquor seized. Thereafter one of the federal prohibition agents testified that-that same evening, prior to the search at defendant’s residence, the de *242 fendant had been apprehended while driving his automobile in another part of the city; that the defendant’s car was searched and a can of álcohol found therein and that he (the prohibition agent) thereupon arrested the defendant and delivered him into the custody of the sheriff.

At the close of the state’s case the defendant made the following motion : “That the State be required to elect whether or not it wishes to stand upon the evidence showing an alleged possession of intoxicating liquor in the premises known as 319 Second Street Northwest in the City of Minot, or an alleged possession of intoxicating liquor in an automobile in the City of Minot before the Eagle Laundry, a different time than the alleged evidence showing possession in the premises at Second Street Northwest.”

The motion was granted and the State elected to stand upon the charge that the defendant was in possession of liquor at his residence. The defendant thereupon moved that the testimony relating to the finding of liquor in defendant’s car be stricken out. The motion was denied. Later the defendant requested the following instructions:

“The defendant respeetfully requests the Court to give the following instructions: In this case there has been evidence introduced on the part of the State tending to show the possession of liquor in two different places. Upon motion of the defendant the State was required to elect as to which possession they would stand on, and the State, thereupon, elected to stand on the evidence showing the possession of liquor at 319 Second Street Northwest in the City of Minot, so before you can find the defendant guilty in this case, yon must find from the evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant had intoxicating liquor in his possession at 319 Second Street Northwest in the City of Minot, North Dakota.”

The requested instruction was refused. Among others, the court gave the following instructions:

“The defendant in this case is charged with the crime of engaging in the liquor traffic.

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Related

State v. Grams
259 N.W. 86 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1935)

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Bluebook (online)
257 N.W. 479, 65 N.D. 238, 1934 N.D. LEXIS 191, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-stoddard-nd-1934.