State v. Suttles

88 P. 238, 13 Idaho 88, 1907 Ida. LEXIS 12
Idaho Supreme Court·Decided January 16, 1907·Published·Cited by 16 cases

Opinion

AILSHIE, C. J.

The defendant was convicted of the crime of rape, and sentenced to a term of ten years in the state penitentiary, and has appealed, and presents his case in this court upon the record of conviction commonly designated the judgment-roll. The first two assignments of error are general ones, and call for no specific consideration here. The third, fourth and fifth assignments of error cover, in fact, all the grounds of complaint presented by appellant, and are sufficiently specific to require our special attention. The third and fourth will be considered together. The record in this ease was certified up to this court under section 8051, Revised Statutes, and appears to contain the entire record as defined and required by section 7996, Revised Statutes. The record as presented to this court does not show [92] that the appellant was informed by the court, or anyone under the court’s direction, of his right to challenge an individual juror, and that he should do so before the jury was sworn. Further, it does not show that during the course of the trial the court admonished the jury from'time to time upon the taking of an adjournment that they should not converse one with the other or with any third parties, or form or express any opinion on the case until it was finally submitted to them. Both these assignments of error may be disposed of in the same manner. In the first place, the record as defined by section 7996, Revised Statutes, is not required to show these facts; it is sufficient if the facts actually exist. All the presumptions are in favor of the regularity of the proceedings of courts of record. In the absence of any showing to establish the fact whether the court did or did not comply with these requirements of law, the presumption of law will at once arise that the court complied therewith and discharged every duty the statute imposed upon it in the trial of the case. And since the statute does not require these facts to be incorporated in the record as prescribed and defined by section 7996, supra, it was the duty of the defendant, if the court in fact failed to comply with the law in these respects, and the defendant felt aggrieved over the court’s action, to take exception thereto and incorporate the same in a. bill of exceptions and present it to this court on appeal. His failure to do so was a waiver of any objection that he might have had, and leaves the presumptions all against him and in favor of the regularity of the proceedings leading up to and including his conviction and sentence. In People v. Waters, 1 Idaho, 560, it was said: “This court cannot presume that anything was omitted to be done by the court below that the law requires to be done to insure a fair trial, but must presume in the absence of any showing to the contrary by .the defendant that everything necessary to be done was done.” And again, in People v. Ah Hop, 1 Idaho, 698, it was said: “The presumptions are in favor of the regularity of the proceedings in the district courts in criminal as well as in civil cases.” To the [93] same effect, see People v. Mortier, 58 Cal. 266; People v. Elsworth, 92 Cal. 594, 28 Pac. 604. Counsel for appellant cite People v. Gaines, 52 Cal. 479, with apparently great confidence, in support of the proposition that the record must affirmatively show that all the requirements of the statute were complied with in a criminal case, and that in the absence of such a showing it will be assumed that the requirements of law were not complied with. That was a case where the record failed to disclose that the defendant had ever been arraigned or had entered any plea. The court held that since the statute required that “every plea must be oral and entered upon the minutes of the court in substantially the following form,” etc. (the same as section 7756, Revised Statutes), and" also required that the record should contain “a copy of the minutes of the trial” (same as section 7996, Revised Statutes), a failure of the record to show these facts would carry with it a presumption that they never occurred. It was held that the state, in order to sustain the conviction, would be required to furnish a record disclosing a compliance with the statute in these respects. We have no fault to .find with this authority, but that case is not a parallel with the case at bar. Here the'facts that appellant complains of the record not showing are not required to be contained in the record on an appeal from the judgment.

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State v. Suttles, 88 P. 238, 13 Idaho 88, 1907 Ida. LEXIS 12 (Idaho 1907).

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