State v. Thomas

174 S.W.2d 337, 351 Mo. 804, 1943 Mo. LEXIS 480
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedOctober 4, 1943
DocketNo. 38550.
StatusPublished
Cited by47 cases

This text of 174 S.W.2d 337 (State v. Thomas) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Thomas, 174 S.W.2d 337, 351 Mo. 804, 1943 Mo. LEXIS 480 (Mo. 1943).

Opinion

*807 ELLISON, J.

The appellant was convicted by a jury in the Laclede county circuit court of assault with intent to rape. His punishment was assessed at two years’ imprisonment in the penitentiary. We take up in their order his briefed assignments of error, stating the facts applicable to each in the discussion thereof.

Appellant’s first contention is that his challenge to the poll of Ferrell Burns, a member of the jury panel, should have been sustained under See. 4057, R. S. 1939, Mo. R. S. A., sec. 4057, because Burns stated in his voir dire examination that his sister was the wife of a brother of the prosecutrix’ husband. In other words, he was a brother-in-law of a brother-in-law of the prosecutrix. The statute provides that in criminal prosecutions no person “of kin” to the “injured party” or to “the prosecutor or defendant” shall be competent to serve as a juror on the trial of the cause. The prosecutrix here was both the “prosecutor” (who signed the complaint) and the “injured party” (who was allegedly assaulted). She therefore came within the statutory designation.

*808 But the statute does not specify how the prosecutrix and the juror must be related: whether by consanguinity or affinity. He was not related by consanguinity. Was he, by affinity? In State v. Carter, 345 Mo. 74, 77(3), 131 S. W. (2d) 546, 548(4), a female cousin of the juror’s wife had married a brother of the defendant. The case ruled this did not constitute a relationship forbidden by the statute. The same ruling must be made here. A kinship by affinity — arising through marriage' — exists only between each spouse and the blood relatives of the other spouse. 1 Here, juror Burns was not blood kin of the prosecutrix’ husband, and therefore was not related to her by affinity. It results that he was not of kin to her at all, and the assignment must be overruled.

The next assignment raises a similar question. Charles Atkinson, one of the twelve jurors chosen from the panel, was the husband of the daughter of appellant’s first cousin, and consequently by affinity appellant’s second cousin, or first cousin once removed. 2 On the voir dire examination of the jury panel the prosecuting attorney had asked the general question: “Are you related by blood or marriage to Mr. Thomas (the appellant) or Mrs. Nyberg (the prosecutrix) ?” Atkinson remained silent although he must have heard the examination of juror Burns, referred to in the last paragraph, and the discussion between the court and counsel regarding his relationship to the prosecutrix. Furthermore, all the jurors were asked if they were acquainted with the appellant, who was pointed out to them, and Atkinson said nothing although others spoke up.

His kinship was not discovered until after the first day of the trial, during which the State had completed its case in chief, and the defense had concluded the examination of two witnesses. The next morning the prosecuting attorney, in the absence of the jury, informed the court that such information had come to him. Appellant’s counsel. [33&] were ignorant about it and inquired of the appellant who told them he did not know of it. Upon investigation they ascertained the information was correct, and neither the juror nor the appellant was questioned further thereon. The juror was never asked if he knew of the relationship. The prosecuting attorney withdrew his objection, but appellant’s counsel challenged the juror under See. 4057, supra, and moved for a mistrial. The motion was overruled and error is assigned on that ruling.

Three questions arise on these facts: (1) was the juror within the degree of relationship banned by the statute; (2) if he was can the appellant complain, since the juror was his own kinsman, not that of the prosecutrix, and the State had withdrawn its objection; (3) *809 and if the appellant otherwise might have complained, did he waive the point by failing to raise it until after the State had presented its case in chief and the trial had progressed for a day. The statute, 3 Sec. 4057, is as follows:

..“Where any indictment or information alleges an offense against the person or property of another, neither the injured party nor any person of kin to him shall be a competent juror on the trial, nor shall any person of kin to the prosecutor or defendant in any case serve as a juror on the trial thereof.” .

What degree and hind of relationship is contemplated by the indefinite words “of kin” in this statute? State v. Lewis, 323 Mo. 1070, 1082, 20 S. W. (2d) 529, 533, treated the section as in pari materia with another, which it designated as Sec. 4023, R. S. 1919; and said the latter was “an additional statute, general in its nature and applicable alike to civil and criminal cases. ’ ’ Then it proceeded to quote the “additional statute,” which is now Sec. 722, omitting the first clause thereof — enclosed in parentheses below — as follows:

(No witness or person summoned as a witness in any civil cause, and) “no person who has formed or expressed an opinion concerning the matter, or any material fact in controversy in any such cause, which may influence the judgment of such person, or who is of kin to either party to any such cause within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity, sháll be sworn as a juror in the same cause. ’ ’

But the Lewis case erred, through oversight, in making the foregoing statement. The present Sec. 722 was not Sec. 4023 in the Revision of 1919, but Sec. 6632. And it does not apply, to civil and criminal cases alike, but to civil cases only, as the first clause of the section (omitted from the foregoing quotation in the Lewis case) plainly shows. The mistake came about in this way. The Lewis case relied on State v. Meininger, 290 S. W. 1007, as authority. That decision did cite See. 4023, R. S. 1919, and did say it applied to both civil and criminal eases, which is true. But said Sec. 4023, R. S. 1919 (now Sec. 4068) has nothing to do with the qualifications of jurors. It applies only to the impaneling of the jury, keeping them together and the manner of rendering their verdict. That was the point on which the Meininger case cited it, at the same time expressly holding these matters were not grounds of disqualification or challenge, and referring to the very statute here in question (Sec. 6632, R. S. 1919, now Sec. 722). In short, the Lewis case simply was mistaken in quoting said Section 722 as if it were Sec. 4023, R. S. 1919; and in applying the provision in the latter that the ■ proceedings in civil and criminal cases should be the same, to the provision in the former dealing with the competency of jurors.

*810 The history of this legislation, also, points to the conclusion that the provisions about kinship in Secs. 4057 and 722 have nothing in common.

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Bluebook (online)
174 S.W.2d 337, 351 Mo. 804, 1943 Mo. LEXIS 480, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-thomas-mo-1943.