Hamlin v. State

• Decision Date: 07 November 1903
• Docket Number: 13,399,13,178
• Citation: 74 P. 242,67 Kan. 724
• Parties: TOLBERT HAMLIN v. THE STATE OF KANSAS
• Court: Kansas Supreme Court

74 P. 242

67 Kan. 724

TOLBERT HAMLIN v. THE STATE OF KANSAS

Nos. 13,178, 13,399

Supreme Court of Kansas

November 7, 1903

Decided July, 1903.

Error from Barber district court; P. B. GILLETT, judge.

Judgment affirmed.

SYLLABUS

SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.

1. CORAM NOBIS--When Not Available. A writ of error coram nobis is not available to review an adjudicated issue of fact where the error, if any, was open to correction upon a motion for a new trial or upon appeal to a higher court.

2. CORAM NOBIS--False Statements by Jurors Insufficient. The writ will not lie from a decision in a criminal prosecution holding members of a jury to be qualified, although it is alleged that the jurors made false statements as to their qualifications, and also that defendant had no knowledge of their prejudice against him until long after the motion for a new trial had been made and overruled.

G. M Martin, C. W. Ellis, and W. W. S. Snoddy & Son, for plaintiff in error.

C. C. Coleman, attorney-general, Samuel Griffin, and Noble & Tincher, for The State.

JOHNSTON C. J. All the Justices concurring.

OPINION

JOHNSTON, C. J.:

These proceedings were brought to obtain a review of a ruling of the district court refusing an application for a writ of error coram nobis. On May 17, 1901, Tolbert Hamlin was convicted upon a charge of statutory rape and the sentence imposed was imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term of ten years. Upon an appeal to this court the judgment of conviction was affirmed. (The State v. Hamlin, 64 Kan. 888, 68 P. 1133.)

In his petition for the writ he alleged that two members of the jury that found him guilty stated upon their voir dire that they had not formed or expressed an opinion on the merits of the case and had no prejudice against him. There was a further statement that he believed that they swore falsely in that examination, as they had formed and expressed an opinion which was adverse to the defendant, and had stated in substance that defendant ought to be hung for the crime with which he was charged. There was a further averment that he had no knowledge or means of knowing that these jurors were prejudiced against him until four months after the conviction, when he learned of it. The trial court rightly held that the averments of the defendant, accepted as true, did not entitle him to the extraordinary remedy sought.

Coram nobis is available as a remedy in this state, but not to the extent that it was at common law. The code specifically provides for the correction of errors in the trial court, and any errors or matters which may be corrected on motion in that court, or upon appeal in this court, cannot be made the grounds of an application for a writ of coram nobis. It was said in Asbell v. The State, 62 Kan. 209, 212, 61 P. 690:

"Our code provides how errors may be corrected in the courts in which they occur, and to the extent that provision is so made it is necessarily exclusive of common-law writs and procedure. This writ, instead of superseding the statutory provisions, is only employed in aid of them, or where the statute fails to afford a remedy."

The qualification of jurors was one of the matters which was tried and adjudicated in the district court; and the rulings of trial courts on these questions are frequently the subjects of review in this court. The qualification of the two jurors alleged to have been disqualified was considered by the trial court and its...