People v. Crandell
Decision Date | 07 January 1935 |
Docket Number | No. 126.,126. |
Parties | PEOPLE v. CRANDELL. |
Court | Michigan Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
William Crandell was convicted of murder of the first degree, and he appeals.
Affirmed.
Appeal from Superior Court of Grand Rapids; Thaddeus B. Taylor, judge.
Argued before the Entire Bench.
Shelby B. Schurtz, of Grand Rapids, for appellant.
Bartel J. Jonkman, Pros. Atty., and Fred N. Searl, Asst. Pros. Atty., both of Grand Rapids, for the People.
Defendant, a boy between fifteen and sixteen years of age, was convicted of murder of the first degree and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The day he was arrested, and without counsel or knowledge of his father, the juvenile division of the probate court waived its jurisdiction, he was arraigned in the police court, waived examination, was arraigned in the superior court, and pleaded guilty to an information charging him with the crime of murder. After sentence the court was petitionedto set the sentence and conviction aside and accord defendant a trial with the assistance of counsel. The court refused to do so, and, upon application, we allowed an appeal. The murder was clearly established by evidence, and the degree thereof was confessed by defendant and verified by other evidence as a killing in an attempt to perpetrate a robbery. This constituted murder of the first degree. Act No. 328, Pub. Acts 1931, § 316.
Defendant loaded his father's revolver, placed a mask over his face, went into the house of a neighbor, demanded money from Ima Brewer, and, when she called him by his given name and started to get a broomstick, he shot and killed her. Defendant then went home, burned the mask, replaced his father's revolver, and, the next day, attended school, and was there arrested.
The fact that in the confession defendant stated an unintentional firing of the revolver did not reduce the degree of murder. People v. Roberts, 211 Mich. 187, 178 N. W. 690, 13 A. L. R. 1253.
As stated in People v. Lytton, 257 N. Y. 310, 178 N. E. 290, 292, 79 A. L. R. 503: ‘The court did not err in charging the jury in effect that the discharge of a pistol by a defendant who is holding it in his hand in furtherance of an attempt to rob, will lay the basis for a verdict of murder in the first degree, though the discharge was not intended, an accident induced by the terror or nervousness or excitement of the robber.’ See, also, Commonwealth v. Lessner, 274 Pa. 108, 118 A. 24.
Before affaignment defendant made a written confession, and, after plea, was examined by the judge and again confessed his crime and detained the circumstances. Upon his plea the court examined witnesses; the written confession was placed in evidence, and the court could do no less than sentence him to imprisonment for life for murder of the first degree. Act No. 328, Public Acts 1931, § 316.
No claim is made by defendant of coercion in obtaining the confession; neither does he now claim that the confession was not true.
The procedure employed in the instance at bar was expeditious and might well, considering the age of the boy, have been less speedy and an opportunity afforded the father to be present, but, if in accord with lawful action, we cannot set the same aside. The law affords an accused the benefit of counsel if he so desires; of his own selection if employed by him, and by the court if he is without means and so requests. No request was made, and the court did not exercise the humane power of providing the boy with counsel.
The prosecuting attorney, by petition, informed the juvenile division of the probate court that defendant was under arrest for a felony and asked that court to waive jurisdiction and permit prosecution in a criminal proceeding. The probate judge recited in an order that, upon investigation, such a prosecution should be permitted, and waived jurisdiction.
Under the circumstances here involved, considering the age of the boy, the felony alleged was wholly without the jurisdiction of the juvenile division of the probate court, People v. Ross, 235 Mich. 433, 209 N. W. 663, and the waiver required was but pro forma.
The record fully supports the waiver, and the statute, Act No. 309, Public Acts 1931, c. 4 (Comp. Laws 1929, § 17161) , relative thereto, was complied with. There is no merit in the point that defendant's confession could not be considered in determining the degree of the murder.
In People v. Lytton, supra, it was said:
‘The defendant insists that upon a trial for homicide perpetrated in the commission of another and independent felony (People v. Moran, 246 N. Y. 100, 158 N. E. 35; Penal Law [Consol. Laws, c. 40], § 1044, subd. 2), a confession is insufficient evidence to sustain a conviction, though there is corroborating evidence of the fact of the homicide, unless there is also corroborating evidence, i. e., evidence apart from the confession, of the independent felony, and that the trial judge erred in charging to the contrary. * * *
No claim is made by defendant, or any one in his behalf, that he was not guilty of the murder. His confession of guilt and details of the killing remain unquestioned.
We quote the following from the opinion of the trial judge:
‘Complaint is made that the respondent was not represented by an attorney when arraigned in this Court.
The constitutional provision, securing to an accused the right to have the assistance of counsel, is not at all applicable to this case.
In People v. Williams, 225 Mich. 133, 195 N. W. 818, 819, two men, upon pleas of guilty, were sentenced and later moved the court to vacate their pleas, alleging that they did not have the assistance of counsel and, therefore, could not freely and intelligently act. We held:
If the action had was without error in point of law, we cannot, and ought not, let a sense of what might better have been done move us to set...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
People v. Allen, Docket No. 10157
...the identity of the crime instead of merely characterizing the degree of culpability to be imputed to the killer.' In People v. Crandell (1935), 270 Mich. 124, 258 N.W. 224, the defendant pled guilty to murder in the first degree; he killed while attempting to perpetrate a robbery. The Cour......
-
Betts v. Brady
...497, 498, 29 N.E.2d 405, 130 A.L.R. 1427; State v. Hilgemann, 1941, 218 Ind. 572, 34 N.E.2d 129, 131. MICHIGAN: People v. Crandell, 1935, 270 Mich. 124, 127, 258 N.W. 224. PENNSYLVANIA: Commonwealth v. Richards, 1933, 111 Pa.Super. 124, 169 A. 464. See Com. ex rel. McLinn v. Smith, 344 Pa. ......
-
People v. Aaron
...292-293; Wellar v. People, 30 Mich. 16, 18-19 (1874); People v. Page, 198 Mich. 524, 536, 165 N.W. 755 (1917); People v. Crandell, 270 Mich. 124, 126, 258 N.W. 224 (1935); People v. Wright, 315 Mich. 81, 87, 23 N.W.2d 213 (1946). Samuel Scott and Wellar do not even involve felony-murder cha......
-
Sheppard v. Michigan Nat. Bank
...548, 21 N.W.2d 849, 851: 'The writer of the present opinion expressed his views at length in a dissenting opinion in People v. Crandell, 270 Mich. 124, 130, 258 N.W. 224. Having done so, he now considers himself bound by the Court's views of the matter as expressed in the opinion prepared b......