Com. v. Soderquest
| Decision Date | 01 April 1903 |
| Parties | COMMONWEALTH v. SODERQUEST. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
Malcolm Mackay, for exceptant.
M. J Sughrue, Asst. Dist. Atty., for the Commonwealth.
On September 29, 1902, the defendant was sentenced in the superior court upon his plea of guilty to an indictment for an assault with intent to kill, and we understand that the execution of the sentence was immediately begun, and that the sitting of the court was soon after adjourned without day. On November 13, 1902, he filed a motion for a new trial on the ground that he was not guilty of the crime, and that he pleaded guilty under a misapprehension of fact. On January 27, 1903, he filed another motion, asking the court to revoke the sentence, and to permit him to retract his plea and to plead not guilty. The court, after a hearing upon the motions, denied them on the ground that under the law it had no power to grant them. The defendant took exceptions.
In both of these motions the defendant asked the court, after the expiration of the sitting at which the case was ended, and after the record presumably had been fully made up, and a long time after he had entered upon the execution of his sentence, to revoke the sentence, and to take new proceedings in the case, as if it were still pending. It is well settled that, apart from special statutory authority, the court had no jurisdiction to grant the motions. Com. v Foster, 122 Mass. 317-323, 23 Am. Rep. 326; Com. v. Mayloy, 57 Pa. 291; Ex parte Lange, 18 Wall 163-174, 21 L.Ed. 872. In reference to a question like this, we are of opinion that St. 1897, p. 484, c. 490 (Rev. Laws, c. 157, §§ 24, 29, 33), which abolished criminal terms, and established sittings instead, did not change the law. The reasons for the rule which permitted a sentence to be vacated and another to be substituted during the term in which it was imposed, and which forbade further proceedings after the case had been finally ended, and the term adjourned without day, are equally applicable under our present statutes. Com. v. Weymouth, 2 Allen, 144, 79 Am. Dec. 776; Com. v. Foster, 122 Mass. 317-323, 23 Am. Rep. 326; Mason v. Pearson, 118 Mass. 61; Barnes v. Smith, 104 Mass. 363; Cameron v. McRoberts, 3 Wheat. 591, 4 L.Ed. 467; Brown v. Rice, 57 Me. 55, 2 Am. Rep. 11. The action asked for in the motions was entirely different from a correction of mistakes in their records, which is within the power of courts at any time. Tilden v. Johnson, 6 Cush. 354; Fay v. Wenzell, 8 Cush. 315; Cheang Kee v. U.S., 3 Wall. 320, 18 L.Ed. 72.
The defendant seeks to bring the first of his motions under Rev. Laws, c. 219,§ 33, which provides that 'the superior court may, at the sitting in which an indictment is tried, or within one year thereafter, upon motion in writing of the defendant, grant a new trial for any cause for which, by law, a new trial may be granted, or if it appears to the court that justice has not been done, and upon such terms and conditions as the court may order.' All that the court can do under this statute is to grant a new trial. Unless a plea of guilty, which establishes the charges of the commonwealth in a criminal case, is a trial or a part of a trial, the statute is not applicable to a case like this.
According to Bouvier's Law Dictionary, a trial is 'the examination before a competent tribunal, according to the laws of the land, of the facts in issue in a cause, for the purpose of determining such issue.' According to its popular meaning, and according to its technical meaning, the word 'trial' cannot properly be used to designate an arraignment, and an entry of a plea by the defendant in a criminal case. This proposition was established, after elaborate discussion, by Mr. Justice Story, in U.S. v Curtis, Fed. Cas. No. 14,905, 4 Mason, 232. See, also, the argument of counsel in Com. v. Hardy, 2 Mass. 303. Courts generally have given the word the limited meaning stated above. Adams v. Howard, 14 Vt. 158; Corwin v. Thomas, 83 Ind. 110; Zaliski v. Clark, 45 Conn. 397; State v. Behimer, 20 Ohio St. 572; Dodge v. Bell, 37 Minn. 382, 34 N.W. 739; Hine v. Myrick, 60 Minn. 518, 62 N.E. 1125; Hunnel v. State, 86 Ind. 431; Reed v. State, ...
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