State v. Wheat

35 So. 955, 111 La. 860, 1903 La. LEXIS 573
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedApril 13, 1903
DocketNo. 14,669
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 35 So. 955 (State v. Wheat) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Wheat, 35 So. 955, 111 La. 860, 1903 La. LEXIS 573 (La. 1903).

Opinions

BLANCHARD, J.

W. M. Graydon and J. H. WTheat, brothers-in-layv, were residents of Catahoula Parish. In May 1902 théy were jointly indicted for the murder of Mark M. Fowlkes in said Parish.

Both of the accused asked for severance and it was granted, the State electing to try Graydon first.

Graydon then moved for change of venue and it was allowed. Whereupon the case as to him was transferred to the Parish of Franklin, in the same Judicial District, and was tried there, the trial resulting in his acquittal.

At the time Graydon asked for a change of venue, the State had already filed a motion for change of venue as to the whole case, withdrawing same as to Graydon, when the latter presented his motion for the change.

This left the State’s motion for change of venue still pending as to the case against Wheat.

This motion set forth that Graydon and Wheat stood charged before the court with the murder of Fowlkes.

That the accused were white men and Fowlkes was a white man.

That it is the opinion and belief of the applicant (the District Attorney) the State could not get a fair and impartial trial of the case.

The prayer was that the venue be changed and the case sent for trial to another parish.

Voluminous testimony was taken on this motion, resulting in a ruling by the trial Judge granting the change of venue and* ordering the ease to the Parish of Franklin for trial.

It was tried there twice. The first time the jury failed to agree; the second trial resulted in the conviction of Wheat of manslaughter.

[863]*863From a sentence of ten years at hard labor predicated upon this verdict, he appeals.

Ruling ■—The record teems with bills of exceptions.

The first in order is leveled at the Judge’s action in overruling a demurrer filed to the motion of the State for change of venue. This demurrer averred the legal insufficiency of the motion to warrant the relief asked.

While the motion for change of venue should have been drawn with more care, and, perhaps, with more fullness of allegation, and while the trial Judge would have been warranted in sustaining the demurrer to the extent of requiring the District Attorney to amend, we are not prepared to say, in view of the broad scope of the statute relating to applications by the State for changes of venue, that there is reversible error in the ruling refusing to sustain the demurrer.

The law on the subject is found in Act No. 95 of 1870, p. 150, now Section 1021 of Wolff’s Revised Laws of Louisiana, and is' as follows:—“Whenever it shall be .established, in any criminal prosecution, by legal and sufficient evidence, that a fair and impartial trial cannot be had in the parish where the case is pending, the judge of any court having jurisdiction of the case may, upon application of the Attorney General, district attorney, or district attorney pro tempore, for a change of venue, grant such application; provided, that the said case he transferred to any parish or judicial district adjoining the one in which the case is pending.”

The only requirement of this statute is it shall be established by legal and sufficient evidence that a fair and impartial trial cannot be had in the parish where the case is pending. It contemplates a hearing contradictorily with the accused and the srrbmission of evidence going to show or establish that a fair and impartial trial cannot be had, with the right on part of the accused to offer evidence contra. Brouillette v. Judge, 45 La. Ann. 243, 12 South. 134.

It will be observed the statute does not limit the prosecuting officer, in applying for a change of venue, to those cases where he may believe the State cannot get a fair and impartial trial in the parish where the indictment is laid. It is comprehensive enough to include, also, those cases where such officer may believe the accused cannot have a fair and impartial trial in such parish.

In contemplation of law it is as much the duty of a prosecuting officer to insure the man accused of crime a fair and impartial trial as it is his duty to demand such for the State.

A marked distinction is observable in the law relating to applications made by the State for changes of venue and those authorized to be made by the accused.

When the accused makes it, Section 1022 of the Revised Statutes requires the application to be accompanied by an affidavit in which the accused sets forth he has good reason to believe that by reason of prejudice existing in the public mind, or by reason of some other sufficient cause, which must be described, he cannot obtain an impartial trial in the parish where indicted.

The State is not required to present such a preliminary affidavit, nor to set forth existing prejudice in the public mind, or other causes, as grounds for its inability to obtain a fair and impartial trial.

It would seem that all it has to do is to set up, in general terms, its inability to obtain a fair and impartial trial and then establish it by evidence adduced.

So that, when the District Attorney, in the instant case, averred in his motion that in his opinion and belief the State could not get a fair and impartial trial in the Parish of Catahoula, he set forth sufficient, in view of the statute, to warrant going into a general inquiry touching the issue thus raised.

His demurrer being overruled, defendant filed a motion to strike from the files the motion for phange of venue on the ground that it was not called up by him for action at the May term of court at which it was filed, nor at the July term following, and because of the fact that at the August term of the court the District Attorney caused the case against defendant to be fixed for trial notwithstanding the pendency of the motion for change of venue.

From this is argued and urged that the State had abandoned the attempted change of venue, and defendant complains of the ruling denying his motion to strike from the files.'

We do not think there was error here.

We are not apprised why the motion for [865]*865change of venue was not tried at the two preceding terms of court. The defendant had been duly notified of its filing at the time it was presented. The law required this.

Thereafter he was in court as to that motion until it was disposed of. If the State were dilatory in the matter of its trial, it was his right to urge trial, and to have objected to any further steps taken in the case until the motion was disposed of. If he did this, the record does not show it.

Nor are we informed of the circumstances under which the case was set for trial prior to disposing of the motion for change of venue. It may be, as is usual at the beginning of terms of court in the country, the docket was called and eases ripe for action assigned for trial in keeping with the customary practice. Or, it may be the assignment of this case for trial meant for trial of the preliminary matter at issue, to wit:—the motion for change of venue. Or, the District Attorney may have caused the case to be set down for trial on a certain day, intending, when the time came, to exercise the option either to go to trial on the application for change of venue, or to waive it and go to trial on the merits, as his judgment might then dictate.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
35 So. 955, 111 La. 860, 1903 La. LEXIS 573, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-wheat-la-1903.