United States v. Miyamura

2 D. Haw. 3
CourtDistrict Court, D. Hawaii
DecidedApril 4, 1904
StatusPublished

This text of 2 D. Haw. 3 (United States v. Miyamura) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Hawaii primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Miyamura, 2 D. Haw. 3 (D. Haw. 1904).

Opinion

Dome, J.

The jury in the above case found the defendant guilty as charged in the indictment and thereafter counsel for the defendant moved the court to vacate, set aside and annul such verdict and to grant said defendant a new trial upon said indictment.

One of the grounds for such motion was that the court erred in reading to the jury a portion of the evidence and instructing the jury that if they believed the-portion so read, they should find the defendant guilty. The charge of the court referred to was as follows: “In regard to the paper in the case, relative to “the crime charged under the second count, in which it is charged “that the woman was sold; if it relates to the first count, it is “in this, that the witness Arate testified that- to pay off money “borrowed from Sasamoto, she borrowed money from the defendant and delivered the document to him so that he kept it. If “you believe this testimony, this evidence as to the offense of “peonage, and if you believe that Miyamura, by reason of his “possession of this document, forced her to prostitute herself, “that is sufficient for a verdict of guilty on both counts.”

One of the authorities cited by the counsel for the defendant on this point, (Barker v. The State, 48 Ind., 167), has the following:

“Instructions should be predicated on the whole evidence, and when they have a tendency to restrict the consideration of the jury to isolated, facts, to the exclusion of other facts which are before them in evidence, it is not only a misdirection but an infringement on the province of the triors of the fact.”

Reference to the charge shows that this instruction taken with the other instructions, did not restrict the consideration of the jury on that point to the exclusion of other parts of the evidence. [5]*5Among other instructions, the court charged as follows: “By a “reasonable doubt, gentlemen, is meant a doubt based on reason, “and which is reasonable in view of all the evidence. It is not “a fanciful or conjectural doubt, but must impart such a condition of mind, after a careful consideration of tire evidence, “that you cannot say that you are convinced or satisfied that “the defendant is guilty as charged;” also: “This defendant “cannot be convicted by you unless he feloniously and with “criminal intent did the acts complained of. In determining “the presence or absence of this indispensable element, you “should consider all the surrounding circumstances, and unless “the prosecution has established, beyond reasonable doubt, the “existence of criminal intent on the part of this defendant, it “is your clear duty to acquit him;” also “You are instructed “that if you believe from the evidence, beyond a reasonable “doubt, that the defendant, at or about the time mentioned “in the first count of the indictment, did, either by threats or “coercion of any kind, compel or induce Shizuye Arate to pros“titute her body to men for his benefit, under any claim, either “real or pretended, that she the said Shizuye Arate was indebted to him, then defendant is guilty of the crime as set “forth in the said first count.” Erom these instructions it will be seen that, in addition to the instructions objected to, the jury were, instructed to consider all the evidence and all of the surrounding circumstances relative to the offense charged, which removes the case from the danger suggested by this ground of the motion.

Ching v. The United States, 118 Fed. Rep., 538.

The motion for a new trial, therefore, so far as it is based on this point, is overruled.

Another ground for a new trial is set forth in the motion as follows: “That said court erred in admitting into evidence “certain articles of personal property which were marked and “identified as exhibits for the government, the same having “been seized and taken by the United States Marshal without [6]*6“a search warrant, from the possession of the defendant; that “the court further erred in admitting into evidence and declining defendant’s motion to strike out of the evidence, the paper “known as exhibit ‘A,’ the same having been taken from the “defendant’s possession by the United States Marshal without a “search warrant, all of which is illegal and in violation of the “constitutional rights of the defendant.”

In the case of Boyd v. United Slates, 116 U. S. 616, 631, the court.held, under Section 860 of the Revised Statutes, that evidence obtained from a party by a judicial proceeding could not be used against him in a prosecution for a crime, penalty or forfeiture. This section is, in part, as follows:

“No pleading of a party, nor any discovery or evidence obtained from a party or witness by means of a judicial proceeding in this or any foreign country, shall be given in evidence, or in any manner used against him or his property, or estate in any court of the United States, in any criminal proceeding, or for the enforcement of any penalty or forfeiture.”

The case of Boyd v. United States refers at length to a leading case in England in 1162, in which John Wilkes brought an action against Lord Halifax, the then Secretary of State, who had issued a warrant of search, and Wood, who made the search under which the plaintiff’s house was searched and his papers were indiscriminately seized. The plaintiff obtained a verdict of 1,000 pounds (St’g.) against Wood and 4,000 pounds (St’g.) against Lord Halifax. The question of the right of a court to xxse private papers in evidence came up in the case of Gindrat et al v. The People, 138 Ill., 111. The court said in its decision that the cases of Legatt v. Tollervey, (14 East, 302), Jordan v. Lewis, (2 Strange, 1122), and Commonwealth v. Dana, (2 Metc., 329), “as well as the present case, are clearly distinguishable from Boyd v. United States. In the latter case, the xxnconstitutional and erroneous order, process and procedure of the trial court compelled the claimants to produce evidence against themselves, and such order, process and procedure were [7]*7also held to be tantamount to an unreasonable search and seizure, while here and in the other cases cited, thei question of the illegality was raised collaterally, and the courts exercised no lawhatever to procure evidence from the defendants,. ,.jlu neither made orders nor issued process authorizing or purporting to authorize a search of premises or a seizure of property or papers, but simply admitted evidence which was offered without stopping to inquire whether possession of it had been obtained lawfully or unlawfully. Courts, in the administration of criminal law, are not accustomed to be over sensitive in regard to the sources from which evidence comes, and will avail themselves of all evidence that* is competent and pertinent and not subversive to some constitutional or legal right. In 1 Greenleaf on Evidence, (Redfield’s Ed.) Sec. 254a, it is said: 'Though papers and other subjects of evidence may have been illegally taken from the possession of the party against whom they are offered or otherwise rinlawfuly obtained, this is no valid objection to their admissibility, if they are pertinent to the issue. The court will not take notice how they are obtained, whether lawfully or unlawfully, nor will it form an issue to determine that question.’ ”

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Related

Boyd v. United States
116 U.S. 616 (Supreme Court, 1886)
Barker v. State
48 Ind. 163 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1874)
State v. O'Connor
43 P. 859 (Court of Appeals of Kansas, 1896)

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Bluebook (online)
2 D. Haw. 3, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-miyamura-hid-1904.