Jordan v. State
| Decision Date | 28 November 1932 |
| Citation | 107 Fla. 333,144 So. 669 |
| Parties | JORDAN v. STATE. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Error to Criminal Court of Record, Palm Beach County; J. Stockton Bryan, Judge.
John Jordan was convicted of breaking and entering a house from which jewelry was stolen, and he brings error.
Affirmed.
COUNSEL Newman T. Miller, of West Palm Beach, for plaintiff in error.
Cary D Landis, Atty. Gen., and Roy Campbell, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
The defendant, John Jordan, was found in the possession of jewelry recently stolen from the house of Mr. and Mrs. J. J Schlesinger. This led to the filing of an information against him charging him with breaking and entering the house from which the jewelry had been stolen. The defendant denied guilty knowledge of the breaking and entering, or of the theft of the jewelry. His claim was that he had bought the jewelry from a stranger who was accompanied by a young man named 'Kid.' Defendant's version was that these two men, who were not previously known to the defendant offered to sell defendant the jewelry later found in his possession, and that he had committed the act of buying it for $100, but that it was through fear of the two men who offered to sell it to him that he did so.
The jury disbelieved the fabulous explanation thus offered to account for the stolen jewelry being found by the Palm Beach police in the defendant's possession in his room in the Alma Hotel, and found him guilty. From the sentence of ten years' imprisonment imposed upon him by the judge of the criminal court of record of Palm Beach county, this writ of error was taken.
The trial judge should not have permitted some of the questions propounded to the defendant on cross-examination after he had testified as a witness in his own behalf. The questions related to alleged previous arrests, and one previous conviction of the defendant that had occurred prior to his arrest and accusation in the present case. In an ordinary case, some of these questions might be held to amount to an unauthorized attack by the prosecution on the character of the accused, carried out by the prosecuting attorney under guise of a mere cross-examination as to previous conviction of crime, such as is permitted of witnesses, including defendants in criminal cases testifying as such when propounded under section 4373, C. G. L., section 2706, R. G S.
The character of a person accused of crime is not a fact in issue, and the state cannot, for the purpose of inducing belief in his guilt, introduce evidence tending to show his bad character or reputation, unless the accused, conceiving that his case will be...
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State v. McAboy, 13687
...Cir. 1964); United States v. Walker, 313 F.2d 236 (6th Cir. 1963); State v. Jost, 127 Vt. 120, 241 A.2d 316 (1968); Jordan v. State, 107 Fla. 333, 144 So. 669 (1932); State v. Williams, 337 Mo. 884, 87 S.W.2d 175 (1935).5 See, e. g., Cal.Evid.Code §§ 700, 788 (West); Colo.Rev.Stat. § 13-90-......
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Fulton v. State
...Appeal, Fourth District. The decision under review, affirming the conviction, conflicts with this Court's decision in Jordan v. State, 107 Fla. 333, 144 So. 669 (1932). Our jurisdiction is predicated upon Article V, § 3(b)(3) of the Florida Constitution The evidence at trial indicated that ......
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Robertson v. State
...ground not considered by the lower court. The Third District's decision also misapplies this Court's opinions in Jordan v. State, 107 Fla. 333, 144 So. 669, 669-70 (1932), and Foy v. State, 115 Fla. 245, 155 So. 657, 658 (1934), regarding the permissible scope of impeachment of a testifying......
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Coppolino v. State
...appellate court held that although error was committed it was not harmful. See Rhodes v. State, supra. The defendant in Jordan v. State, 1932, 107 Fla. 333, 144 So. 669, was charged with breaking and entering. The State in cross-examining the defendant questioned him about previous arrests ......