Young v. State

96 So. 381, 85 Fla. 348
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedMarch 15, 1923
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 96 So. 381 (Young v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Young v. State, 96 So. 381, 85 Fla. 348 (Fla. 1923).

Opinions

Ellis, J.

In June, 1921, Herman Young was indicted for the murder of Henry B. Driggers. The offense was alleged to have been committed in Hilsborough County on April 2nd, 1921. Hallie J. H. Ellis, Granville Ellis and William H. Young, the plaintiff in error, were charged in the indictment to have been present aiding and abetting the commission of the murder. The plaintiff in error pleaded not guilty. A severance was granted upon motion of the State Attorney and Young was placed on trial April 25th, 1922.

The jury returned a verdict of manslaughter and judgment and sentence were entered against him. He seeks to reverse the judgment on writ of error.

At the very threshold of the case the point is presented that the plaintiff in error was denied a fair trial because a certain venireman called to serve as a juror was held by the court to be qualified as an impartial person over the defendant’s objection that it appeared from the answers of the venireman, to the questions propounded by the court and its authority as to his qualifications, that he was not an impartial person, and therefore not such a person as is contemplated by the Constitution shall serve as a juror in the trial of a felony.

The venireman, who ivas named T. T. Graham, admitted upon his voir dire examination that he had “formed or expressed” an opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the accused. That it -would require evidence to remove the [351]*351opinion he had formed, which he would hold to unless the evidence changed it. He could not say whether his opinion, formed from newspaper articles purporting to give an account of the transaction, would readily yield to the evidence adduced upon the trial. He afterwards said it would not yield readily to the evidence, that is, “easily” yield. That his opinion was “fixed” so far as he knew.' That he was “open to arbitration.” He explained that phrase as meaning “open to conviction if he was wrong.” That he would “have'to be shown.” That his position would be an embarrassing one. The proposed juror’s answers appeared to vacillate between bias and the absence of it, certainty and the lack" of it as to the character of his opinion, whether it was fixed or not, would or would not yield easily or readily to the evidence according as he was questioned by the court, the State Attorney or the defendant’s counsel.

A person so uncertain of his mental attitude toward another on trial upon a grave and serious charge; so doubtful as to whether a prejudgment by him would influence his deliberations as a juror; who forms an opinion concerning the innocence or guilt of the accused upon a newspaper account of the alleged crime; whose opinion is fixed and would require to be -“shown” that such opinion is wrong cannot be said to be an impartial juror should he be chosen to serve as one.

But the man did not serve as a juror nor does the record show that the defendant exhausted one of his peremptory challenges in excluding the venireman from the panel. But the record does show that the defendant exhausted his full quota of ten peremptory challenges.

The proposed juror was challenged for cause by the defendant and the challenge was not sustained by the court [352]*352who held that the venireman was qualified. Exception was duly taken to this ruling and it is the basis of the first assignment of error.

The record does not disclose that the twelve persons who served as jurors in the case were partial nor that any one of them was not an impartial juror. So far as the record discloses to the contrary the defendant obtained a trial by an impartial jury.

The right secured by the statute to a person on trial for a capital offence to challenge peremptorily ten persons tendered by the State as jurors to try the case, is a right that the defendant may waive. He is not bound to exhaust his full quota of challenges. The purpose is that there may be full assurance of the constitutional guaranty of a trial by an impartial jury. If the defendant is wrongfully required to use one of these ten challenges upon a person tendered as a juror, who should have been excused for cause, and exhausts his full quota of challenges harmful error is undoubtedly committed. See Mathis v. State, 45 Fla. 46, 34 South. Rep. 287. But if the person tendered is held to be qualified but does not serve and the record does not show that the defendant used one of his peremptory challenges, all of which were exhausted; in excusing the prejudiced venireman, can it be said that harmful error has been made to appear? See Green v. State, 40 Fla. 191, 23 South. Rep. 851.

It is the duty of a party complaining in an appellate court of the judgment of a lower court that it was erroneous and was obtained by the denial to him of rights to which he was entitled, to make such error clearly appear to the court to which he appeals, if in truth such error exists. All presumptions are in favor of the correctness of the judgment sought to be set aside. The right to [353]*353challenge veniremen peremptorily is a right to reject. If a venireman who is unqualified because not impartial is tendered by the State, but does not serve as a juror, it does not follow that the defendant challenged him peremptorily, even though it does appear that the defendant exhausted his quota of peremptory challenges. To hold otherwise it would have to be presumed in aid of the contention that the judgment was erroneous, that the objectionable venireman was challenged by the defendant, who was thereby wrongfully obliged to use a' peremptory challenge.

But that presumption cannot be invoked. The error, if any exists rendering the judgment bad, consists not in overruling the challenge for cause, but in overruling the challenge for cause and permitting the juror to serve or forcing the defendant to use one of his peremptory challenges and exhausting by him of his full quota of challenges when the jury is selected. Unless that is the situation, no injury resulted from the court’s ruling. There was no harmful error. .

This view is in harmony with the decisions of this court, none of which however decide the exact point, that the defendant must use one of his peremptory challenges in excusing the objectionable venireman and must have exhausted his full quota of such challenges when the jury is finally selected.

From anything appearing in the record to the contrary, the defendant had exhausted his peremptory challenges when the objectionable veniremen was tendered. If such was the case the defendant was not injured by the court’s ruling because the veniremen did hot in fact serve. The record does not show that the jury which was finally selected and tried the issue "was incompetént or biased. In the absence of such showing the presumption exists [354]*354that it was an impartial jury and that is all the defendant can demand if he has not been compelled to exhaust one of his peremptory challenges in excusing a venireman unqualified to serve and has. no unused peremptory • challenges left when the panel is formed. See 16 R. C. L. 291; McRae v. State, 62 Fla. 74, 57 South. Rep. 348.

The McRae case definitely holds that the action of the court in holding a juror to be qualified over defendant’s objection works no injury to the accused if the objectionable venireman does not serve, even though the accused exhausted his statutory number of peremptory challenges, when it does not also appear that any objectionable juror was selected after the defendant’s challenges were exhausted.

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Bluebook (online)
96 So. 381, 85 Fla. 348, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/young-v-state-fla-1923.