Adams v. State

• Decision Date: 30 December 1884
• Docket Number: 12,059
• Citation: 99 Ind. 244
• Parties: Adams v. The State
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

99 Ind. 244

Adams v. The State

No. 12,059

Supreme Court of Indiana

December 30, 1884

From the Huntington Circuit Court.

The judgment is reversed, and the cause remanded with instructions to discharge the appellant.

J. C Branyan, M. L. Spencer, R. A. Kaufman and W. A. Branyan, for appellant.

G. W Gibson, Prosecuting Attorney, J. M. Hildebrand and C. W Watkins, for the State.

OPINION

Niblack J.

This was a prosecution by indictment against Joseph J. Adams, under section 2204, R. S. 1881, for selling a promissory note to the Citizens Bank of Huntington, at Huntington, Indiana, knowing that one of the signatures to the note had been obtained by false pretences. Upon a former appeal to this court the indictment was held to be sufficient, and the judgment below quashing it was reversed. State v. Adams, 92 Ind. 116.

After the cause was remanded, and issue had been formally joined by the entry of a plea of not guilty, a panel of jurors was called to try it. A man known as Luther Crandall was one of the persons thus called to serve as jurors in the cause. Crandall was not specially interrogated as to his qualifications as a juror, but others called with him were so interrogated in his presence and hearing. Before the jury were sworn the court inquired whether all were either freeholders or householders of the county, to which there was a general response in the affirmative. After the jury were sworn, but before any statement of the case had been made to them, and before any further proceedings of any kind had been had, Crandall informed the court that he had, by inadvertence, incorrectly answered the court's inquiry as to some of his qualifications as a juror; that he was, in fact, neither a freeholder nor a householder. The court then inquired of the defendant whether he objected to Crandall as a juror on account of the information which he, Crandall, had thus communicated to the court, to which the defendant, through his attorneys, responded, "We decline to change the jury." The court, thereupon, over the objection and exception of the defendant, discharged the jury. The defendant then moved that he be discharged and permitted to go hence without day, upon the ground that he had been once placed in jeopardy, and that he ought not, for that reason, to be longer held to answer the charge which a jury had been empanelled as above to try. But the court overruled the motion and proceeded to empanel another jury to try the cause, which resulted in finding the defendant guilty as charged, and in sentencing him to the State's prison for a term of two years.

It is a well settled rule that all objections to the competency of a juror are waived by neglecting to use due diligence in urging them as well as by the failure of the party, afterwards complaining, to avail himself of such objections at the proper time, after they have come to his knowledge. Kingen v. State, 46 Ind. 132; Gillooley v. State, 58 Ind. 182; Patterson v. State, 70 Ind. 341; 1 Bishop Crim. Proc., section 946.

That rule applies especially to that class of disqualifications which arise from a proposed juror not being either a freeholder or householder, or a voter...