State v. Wright

192 Iowa 239
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedApril 6, 1921
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 192 Iowa 239 (State v. Wright) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Wright, 192 Iowa 239 (iowa 1921).

Opinion

Stevens, J.

The indictment charged the defendant with having administered certain drugs to one Gladys Jackson, on or about April 17, 1919, for the purpose of producing a miscarriage. Evidence was introduced upon the trial from which the jury were warranted in finding that, commencing on or about April 20, 1918, and continuing until Easter Sunday, 1919, the defendant and Gladys Jackson repeatedly engaged in acts of sexual intercourse. The defendant frequently called at her home, and together they often attended public dances, the defendant, who is a musician, playing in the orchestra. Gladys testified that the defendant, on or about April 17, 1919, gave her two small boxes, containing twelve capsules each, of a drug or substance, which he gave her directions for taking, saying that the same would relieve her of her condition. She testified that she took- all but two of the capsules, without effective result, and that, on October 23, 1919, she gave birth to a child, at a maternity hospital in Kansas City.

A chemical analysis of the contents of one of the capsules showed it to contain green apiol, ergotin, oil of savin, and aloin, which medical experts testified would tend to produce a miscarriage.

It is not claimed by appellant that the evidence is insufficient to sustain the verdict, or that it is contrary thereto. We shall, therefore, refer to only such parts of the record as are necessary to a proper understanding and decision of the errors alleged, which are confined to the overruling of a challenge of a juror for cause, rulings upon the admissibility of evidence, and alleged misconduct of counsel for the State in the opening statement and in argument to the jury.

i 3vey: com-51eS°of prosecutor. I. The examination by counsel touching the qualifications of W. L. Joy for a juror elicited from the said Joy the fact that he was one of the clients of R. G. Howard, one of the attorneys &r the Prosecution, and that.Howard was then in emPloy. -A- challenge for cause, under Subdivision 5 of Section 5360 of the Code, was interposed by the defendant .and overruled by the court; and, as defendant’s peremptory challenges were already exhausted, the juror was sworn in as a member of the panel. The ruling was in harmony with our holding in State v. Carter, 121 Iowa [242]*242135, where this provision of the statute was fully considered and construed.

2 obimih-al ofA^otheridenoe crimes. II. Gladys Jackson was permitted to testify fully as to her relations with the defendant, and, in the course of her narrative, stated that the defendant pinched her, and, as a conclusion, that he forced her to submit to his desires the time. Objection ivas lodged against all of this testimony, upon the grounds that it was incompetent, immaterial, and irrelevant, which objections were overruled; and it is now argued by counsel that this evidence tended to show the commission of other crimes than that charged in the indictment, and that same was inadmissible. The evidence was wholly insufficient to prove the crime of rape, as suggested by counsel. It was clearly proper for the State to prove the relations between the defendant and Gladys, not for the purpose of showing the commission of other crimes (although it might do that), but as tending to show motive. Scott v. People, 141 Ill. 195 (30 N. E. 329); People v. McDowell, 63 Mich. 229 (30 N. W. 68); State v. McLeod, 136 Mo. 109 (37 S. W. 828) ; People v. Josselyn, 39 Cal. 393; State v. King, 117 Iowa 484; State v. Mulhollen, 173 Iowa 242. We deem it unnecessary to review the authorities cited by counsel for appellant upon this point. The rule is well settled in harmony with the holdings of the above cases.

3. Criminad ■ law: appeal and error: hearsay as harmless III. Gladys testified that she went to Boone on March 28th, at the solicitation and request of the defendant, to consult Dr. Iinight; that, on the following day, in the afternoon, she saw the doctor at his office, and, among other things, stated that the defendant had sent her to see him. This statement by the witness was objected to, upon the ground that it was hearsay. Dr. Knight, called as a witness for defendant, denied that Gladys told him who sent her to him. Conceding, without deciding, that this evidence should have been excluded, upon the ground that it was hearsay, it is perfectly apparent that the defendant could have been in no wise prejudiced thereby. Gladys testified, without objection, that the defendant induced her to go to Boone to see Dr. Knight for the purpose of having a miscarriage produced. The fact that she told the doctor that the defendant sent [243]*243ber to Mm added no weight to the probable effect of her testimony properly received upon the trial to that effect.

' law: curing prompty-witii-iawa' IV. Mrs. Jessie Jackson, the mother of Gladys, was permitted, over proper objection of counsel for the defendant, to testify that Dr. Knight,' whom she, in company with Gladys, visited at his office in Boone, told her that he. had treated the defendant, some months before, for a loathsome disease. This evidence was clearly inadmissible, but was, within a very few minutes after it was received, stricken from the record by the court, upon its own motion, who ruled that it had been improperly admitted. The evidence was too remote to have been inherently prejudicial, and the prompt action of the court in striking it from the record must be held to have cured -the error.

’ impeachment: fix definite V. Gladys further testified that the boxes containing the capsules were given to her by the defendant after midnight on April 17th, near the Chautauqua grounds in Jefferson; that she and the defendant had attended a dance at Jefferson on that evening; and that, after they left the dance, they went riding in a Ford sedan, accompanied by Glen Stearns and Flo Gagner, members of the orchestra that had furnished the music for the dance. Flo Gagner, called by the defendant, testified that she did not remember having gone riding in company with the above-named persons after the dance that evening; and Stearns testified that he did not go riding with the parties named, but that he visited with the defendant at the hotel in Jefferson for a considerable time after the dance. These witnesses were recalled by the State for further cross-examination, and asked if they did not, in April, 1919, without stating the date, after they had attended a dance at Jefferson, meet the defendant, in company with Gladys and some other parties, after midnig’ht near the Catholic church. They answered that they did not. After the defendant rested, counsel for the State called Ruby and Clarence Fullum and A. J. Swaney in rebuttal, and sought to show by them that they saw the defendant and the other parties named, in a Ford sedan at the place designated; — that is, near the Catholic church in Jefferson.

As already appears, the interrogatories propounded to these [244]*244witnesses did not fix the exact day of the month on which it was claimed the meeting occurred. Counsel for defendant objected to the questions asked these witnesses, upon the ground that they did not seek to lay a proper foundation for impeachment, and objected to the testimony of the witness called in rebuttal, upon the grounds that no proper foundation for impeachment had been laid, and that the testimony offered was not proper rebuttal.

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Bluebook (online)
192 Iowa 239, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-wright-iowa-1921.