Wright v. State

35 Ark. 639
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedNovember 15, 1880
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 35 Ark. 639 (Wright v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wright v. State, 35 Ark. 639 (Ark. 1880).

Opinion

English, C. J.

On the second of November, 1878, Albert Wright was indicted for murder, in the circuit court of Garland county. He was tried in February, 1880, on plea of not guilty, the jury found him guilty of murder in the second degree, aud fixed bis punishment at imprisonment in the penitentiary for seventeen years. A motion for a new trial was overruled, and bill of exceptions taken. He was sentenced in accordance with the verdict, and prayed an appeal, which was allowed by one of the judges of this court.

i. jUET. oveiuTini ^enTíred

I. The twelfth assignment in the motion for anew trial is, that the court erred in deciding that H. F. Crim, O. E. Gwinn, Jackson Mathews and ¥m. M. Stengler, were competent jurors.

It appears from the bill of exceptions, that H. F. Crim and C. E. Gwinn were severally challenged for cause by the prisoner. The challenges were tried by the court on examination of the jurors under oath, and the court found the jurors qualified, whereupon they were challenged peremptorily by the prisoner. The grounds of the challenges for cause were that the jurors had formed opinions, etc. The bill of exceptions also shows that when the panel of jurors was completed, the prisoner had used but seventeen of the twenty peremptory challenges allowed him by the statute.

It is not material to inquire whether the court correctly decided these jurors to he qualified or not. The prisoner got clear of them by peremptory challenges, and his peremptory challenges were not exhausted when the panel was made up.

The rule, as settled in this court, is that if, after the court has overruled the challenge of a juror for cause, the defendant elects to challenge him peremptorily, and the record shows that he did not exhaust his peremptory challenges, he can not complain of the decision here as error. Benton v. The State, 30 Ark., 328; Meyer v. The State, 19 ib., 156; Stewart v. The State, 13 ib., 720.

- The bill of exceptions shows that Jackson Mathews was challenged by the. prisoner for cause, and, being sworn, he stated that “ he might have formed an opinion in the ease as to the guilt or innocence of the defendant; that he had no opinion now. That he had heard John "Warford, a brother of the deceased, talk about the case in a store down town, next morning after the killing ; that he was talking to others, and he heard little of what was said, and paid little attention to it. That he could and would be governed alone by the law and the evidence in the case, and that he could and would give the defendant a fair and impartial trial as if he had never heard of the case.”

Upon this statement, the court decided the juror to be competent, defendant excepted, and the juror was then accepted by the parties to try the case.

The prisoner did not get clear of this juror by peremptory challenge, but rested on his exception to the opinion of the court deciding him to be competent. (Meyer v. State, supra.) And we will inquire whether the court erred in this matter, notwithstanding the provision of the statute (Grantt’s Digest, sec. 1978), that “the decisions of the court upon challenges to the panel, and for cause, and upon motions to set aside an indictment, shall not be subject to exception.” Palmore v. The State, 29 Ark., 248; Benton v. The State, supra.

Challenges are tried by the court, etc. Gantt’s Digest, sec. 1917.

“ Actual bias, is the existence of such a state of mind on the part of the juror, in regard to the case or either party, as satisfies the court, in the exercise of a sound discretion, that he can not try the case impartially, and without prejudice to the substantial rights of the party challenging.” Gantt’s Digest, sec. 1910.

There was no abuse of the sound discretion of the court in deciding Mathews to be a competent juror. Benton v. The State, sup.

2. New Trial: Rejecting competent juror, no ground for.

The bill of exceptions is silent as toVm. M. Stengler.

II. The thirteenth assignment in the motion for a new trial is, that, the court errecl in deciding A. P. Aldrich to be an incompetent juror.

It appears from the record entries of the trial, that after the regular panel of jurors for the term had been exhausted without making up a jury, A. P. Aldrich, and others, were summoned by the sheriff, under an order of the court as talesmen. When Aldrich was called, it appears from the bill of exceptions that he was sworn to answer questions, and stated that he had formed an opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the prisoner from rumor; that such opinion was based principally upon what he read in the city [Hot Springs] papers; that he did not recollect whether it was a detailed statement or not; that he could and would discard from his mind any such opinion,, and could and would, if a juror, decide the case alone from the law and evidence introduced on the trial. Upon this statement the court declared him incompetent, and the prisoner excepted.

Whether the court was right or wrong in this, it is not materia] to decide, for if wrong, the erroneous rejection of a talesman would be no sufficient cause for granting the appellant a new trial. He had no legal right to have that particular person as a juror. The court might have excused the talesman from serving on the jury for any cause deemed sufficient in its discretion, without legal prejudice to appellant. Hurley v. The State, 29 Ark., 22.

III. The fourteenth assignment in the motion for a new trial is, that three of the jurors — George McKnight, J. A. Jacobs, and R. A. Montgomery — were prejudiced against defendant at the time they were selected upon the jury, and had, previous to their selection, so expressed themselves in terms and effect; and, in support of this fact, defendant offered the affidavits of Calvin Davis, Bob Robbins and Jackson D. Page, and stated that the above information came to his knowledge since the trial.

8.--: exceptions.

There are four affidavits copied in the transcript, following the motion for a new trial, purporting to have been made by Jackson D. Page, L. G-. Robbins, Calvin Davis and Jane Hunter, in relation to expressions made by the three jurors named above about the prisoner, shortly after John R. Warford was killed in August, 1878. The bill of exceptions makes no reference whatever to these affidavits. It merely states that on the twenty-fourth of February, 1880, the defendant filed a motion for a new trial, setting forth the grounds thereof; which was, on the same day, overruled by the court, and defendant thereupon excepted, etc.

Where affidavits are filed in support of a motion for a new trial> they should be incorporated in the bill of excep^i0ns, or referred to, identified, and made part of the record.

If counter affidavits are filed, a like practice should be observed as to them.

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Bluebook (online)
35 Ark. 639, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wright-v-state-ark-1880.