Downs v. State

• Decision Date: 22 June 1893
• Citation: 26 A. 1005,78 Md. 128
• Parties: DOWNS v. STATE.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

26 A. 1005

78 Md. 128

DOWNS v. STATE.

Court of Appeals of Maryland

June 22, 1893

Error to circuit court, St. Mary's county.

Raphael Downs was convicted of a crime, and brings a writ of error. Writ dismissed.

Argued before ROBINSON, C.J., and McSHERRY, BRYAN, FOWLER, and BRISCOE, JJ.

Jos. H Ching and Frank N. Holmes, for plaintiff in error.

Atty Gen. Poe and B. Harris Camalier, for the State.

FOWLER J.

This is a writ of error from the circuit court for St. Mary's county, and the errors assigned are that the grand jury which found the indictment on which the appellant was tried and convicted was illegally drawn and constituted--First, because the judge selected the 150 names from a tax list furnished by the clerk of county commissioners February 1, 1893, when the same should have been selected from the list filed by said clerk prior to the September term, 1892, of said court; and second, because the judge selected the said names from the duplicate registries of voters of the several election districts of St. Mary's county, instead of from the poll books of the several election districts, filed in the clerk's office of said court after the last general election of 1892.

While the provisions of our Code in reference to the drawing of juries are mandatory, yet we have always said that a substantial compliance is sufficient. Green v State, 59 Md. 123; Avirett v. State, (Md.) 25 A. 676, 987. The tax list from which the grand jury was selected in this case may be assumed to have been correct and complete in every respect, except as to the time of filing for the plea in abatement does not allege any other defect, nor is there anything in the record to the contrary. Indeed, the tax list which was used may have been, for anything that appears in the case, an exact reproduction of the one which, it is contended, should have been, but was not, used. But, in addition to this view, it would appear that the tax list which was in fact used by the judge in selecting the names is the list which the law (Code, art. 51, § 6) designates. The clerk of the county commissioners, by the section just referred to, is required to file with the clerk of the circuit court, not less than 20 days before the beginning of the second regular term of said court after each and every general election, a fair and complete list of the male taxable inhabitants of the county, not under 25 years of age. The tax list used was filed with the clerk of the court...