Strickland v. State

1930 OK CR 25, 284 P. 651, 46 Okla. Crim. 190, 1930 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 412
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 25, 1930
DocketNo. A-6918.
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 1930 OK CR 25 (Strickland v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Strickland v. State, 1930 OK CR 25, 284 P. 651, 46 Okla. Crim. 190, 1930 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 412 (Okla. Ct. App. 1930).

Opinion

CHAPPELL, J.

The plaintiff in error, hereinafter called defendant, was convicted in the district court of Oklahoma county on a charge of murder, and his punishment fixed at imprisonment in the state penitentiary for life.

The evidence of the state, in substance, is that the killing occurred in a rooming house operated by defendant at 108% West California street, Oklahoma City. Irene Summers, the deceased, had been an inmate of defendant’s rooming house prior to this time, but for several months immediately preceding the day of the killing she had been staying with her mother in another part of the city.

*192 At about 5 o’clock in.the morning on the day of the killing, the defendant went to the home of deceased’s mother, got deceased, and took her to the rooming house. Deceased stayed there that day in the room occupied by defendant, and it was in this room that she was shot and killed at about 5:30 that evening. The record discloses that deceased and defendant had been drinking prior to the killing. Defendant admitted that he had taken a few drinks that day, and one of his witnesses testified that the deceased was drunk at the time of the killing. Callie Glenn, a witness for the state, testified that she was present in the room; that deceased was sitting up in the bed and that she saw the defendant point the gun at deceased and fire. The physical facts of the killing corroborate this witness. The defendant admits that the killing was done with a pistol which he had purchased that day and a short time previous to the killing, from a hardware store located on the floor below the rooming house; that he went into the room ¡where deceased was, with the pistol in his hand; and that the deceased grabbed the pistol out of his hand and committed suicide by shooting herself.

The transcript of the record presents a clear case of conflicting evidence. It was up to the jury to believe Callie Glenn supported by the physical facts in the case, or believe the defendant supported by the testimony of a Mrs. Brousseau. The jury has determined this issue against the contentions of the defendant. The jury had all these witnesses before it and had opportunity to- observe them as to their manner of testifying and to judge of their credibility and the weight to be given their evidence. ■ There being sufficient evidence in the record to form a basis for the verdict of the jury, the cause comes to this court to be considered only upon the errors of law which the defendant contends occurred at the trial of the case and' *193 which prevented him from having that fair and impartial trial guaranteed him by the laws and constitution of this state.

The defendant first contends that the court erred in overruling his motion for new trial on the ground that the jury were prejudiced against him by having read a certain editorial in the Oklahoma City Times. Defendant complains this editorial had been read by some members of the jury after taking of evidence had commenced but before the final submission of the case. In support of this assignment of error the defendant called one of the jurors, Mr. O’Sullivan, who on direct examination testified as f olloiws:

“A. No; if you read that article, Mr. Wright, there isn’t anything in it about the case; it was about incompetent jurors and let you go through and say, when we were admonished not to read anything about the case and I, personally, had anything in the editorial and I wouldn’t ■ expect to see anything in the editorial and we got in the case before I found out what it was all about.
“Q. Were you laboring under any fear of intimidation because of having read that article, Mr. O’Sullivan? A. From what?
“Q. The reading of the article in the paper, did that create in your mind any fear of intimidation or threats? A. No, sir.
“Q. Did that reading of that article deter you in any way in the discharge of your duty as a juror? A. Not a bit.”

The defendant called no other jurors to testify upon this motion. The editorial complained of contains no comment on the case as affecting the merits of the case and the guilt or innocence of, the defendant, but is a discussion of the jury system and of the difficulty of procuring com *194 petent jurors to sit, not only in the case at bar, but in all other cases. The general rule is stated in 16 C. J. p. 1081.

“The mere fact that jurors read newspapers during the trial of a case is not of itself ground for disturbing the verdict if the newspapers contain no comment on the ease in hand.”
“And even when the jurors receive newspapers containing accounts of, or comments on, the case, the verdict will not be disturbed, if the papers contain nothing' calculated to mislead or improperly to affect their minds or to prejudice their verdict.” .

In the case of Allen v. State, 13 Okla. Cr. 395,. 164 Pac. 1002, 1004, L. R. A. 1917F, 210, this court said:

“Finally it is contended that other misconduct of the jury should reverse this judgment. This assignment of error refers to the fact that during recesses taken during the progress of the trial the jurors were permitted to have access to certain local newspapers concerning stater ments of other homicides committed in Oklahoma county while the trial of this case was in progress, and also during a recess some of the jury sa/w the sheriff come into the courthouse carrying, a hat and two butcher knives, and one of the jurors spoke to him and asked him if that was all he got, and he replied, No, I got one dead one and five live ones.’ It is asserted that this conduct is such as to greatly prejudice this defendant and deprive' him of a fair and impartial trial. While the conduct of the juror in yelling to the sheriff as he was passing through the courthouse is subject to criticism, and is such as the trial court should always rebuke should attention be called to it, nevertheless we cannot see wherein this defendant’s substantial rights were prejudiced thereby. Our statutes (sections 5899, 5900, and 5937, Revised Laws [1910]) provide that there shall be no communication with the jury after it has been impaneled and sworn to try the case by any person on any subject connected with the trial itself, and if such a communication is had it is ground for new trial, and the vérdict should be set aside. In this case it *195 is shown conclusively that no person was permitted to communicate with the jury upon any subject connected with the trial, and it is also shown that the newspapers which the jurors were permitted to read contained no statement with reference to this particular trial; that such matters were torn or cut out of the papers before they 'were handed to the jurors. No statutory right of this defendant therefore was violated,, the jury did not discuss these outside matters in any way, and it does not appear that the defendant was probably injured by such alleged misconduct; but on the other hand the testimony of the persons called by the defendant in support of the motion for new trial, in our opinion, shows that no injury was occasioned this defendant by any of these matters set forth in the motion.”

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Bluebook (online)
1930 OK CR 25, 284 P. 651, 46 Okla. Crim. 190, 1930 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 412, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/strickland-v-state-oklacrimapp-1930.