Joyce v. Commonwealth
| Decision Date | 17 January 1884 |
| Parties | JOYCE v. THE COMMONWEALTH. |
| Court | Virginia Supreme Court |
Error to judgment of circuit court of the county of Elizabeth City rendered 28th June, 1883, on an indictment for the murder of Thomas C. Phillips, whereon Joyce was found guilty of murder in the second decree and sentenced to confinement in the penitentiary for the term of sixteen years.
Opinion fully states the case.
A S. Segar and W. H. White, for the plaintiff in error.
F S. Blair, Attorney-General, for the Commonwealth.
LEWIS P.
The plaintiff in error was indicted in the county court of Elizabeth City county for the murder of Thomas C. Phillips, and having upon his arraignment demanded to be tried in the circuit court of that county, he was accordingly tried in the latter court, found guilty of murder in the second degree and sentenced to confinement in the penitentiary for a term of sixteen years. Four errors are assigned in the petition to this court for a writ of error to the judgment of the circuit court. The subject of the first assignment of error is the refusal of the county court to change the venue, upon the application of the prisoner, before the transfer of the case to the circuit court. The application was made before his arraignment, and was based upon the ground of alleged bitter and general prejudice in the county against the prisoner, rendering it impossible for him to obtain a fair and impartial trial either at the hands of a jury selected from the said county, or brought thereto from another county or corporation. The county court overruled the motion, on the ground that in advance of the arraignment of the prisoner, the motion was premature.
In Wright's Case, 33 Gratt. 880, which was an indictment for murder, the prisoner applied for a change of venue, on grounds very similar to those upon which the motion in this case was founded, and the application was refused. This court sustained the ruling of the lower court, and held that if the prisoner feared he could not get an impartial jury in the county in which he was to be tried, he should first have asked that duly qualified jurors from another county be summoned for the trial; and not having done so, and an impartial jury having in fact been obtained, the conclusive presumption was that the motion for a change of venue was unfounded. In the present case no difficulty seems to have been encountered in obtaining an impartial jury in Elizabeth City county for the trial of the prisoner, nor does it appear that he was not impartially tried; and without, therefore, deciding whether the motion was or was not premature, it is sufficient to say that it was not well founded.
The second error assigned is the refusal of the county court to grant the prisoner's motion for a continuance of the case. The motion was based upon the ground that the prejudice and excitement in the county was so strong and general against him as to render it unsafe for...
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