Quinn v. State

• Decision Date: 29 November 1932
• Docket Number: A-8338.
• Citation: 16 P.2d 591,54 Okla.Crim. 179
• Parties: QUINN v. STATE.
• Court: United States State Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma

16 P.2d 591

54 Okla.Crim. 179

QUINN v. STATE.

No. A-8338.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma

November 29, 1932

Defendant's verified application for change of venue alleged that the inhabitants of the county were so biased and prejudiced against him that neither a fair and impartial jury could be secured, nor fair and impartial trial had in the county because of inflammatory, prejudicial, and untruthful statements against him in newspapers and accounts of the alleged crime, and because the people of the county were so incensed against the defendant that there were some threats of lynching.

Syllabus by the Court.

1. The granting or refusal of a change of venue is discretionary with the trial court, and will not be reviewed on appeal unless it is made clearly to appear that there has been an abuse of this discretion. For a statement of facts showing an abuse of discretion, see body of the opinion.

2. By "abuse of discretion" is meant a clearly erroneous conclusion and judgment; one that is clearly against the logic and effect of such facts as are presented in support of the application, or against the reasonable and probable deductions to be drawn from facts disclosed on the hearing.

3. Where defendant is on trial for a single offense, evidence of unrelated offenses is not admissible, unless relevant to the issue, and both are so closely linked and connected as to form a part of the res gestæ, or tending to establish a systematic scheme or plan embracing the commission of two or more offenses so related to each other that proof of one tends to establish the other, or tending to show motive or intent.

4. On a trial for murder, evidence of other crimes, such as rape alleged to have been committed by defendant at a different time and upon another person, unless within the exceptions to the rule, is inadmissible, and the error of admitting such testimony is not cured by the court's charge that defendant was not to be convicted because of the admission of evidence of such other crime.

5. Every person charged with crime, great or small, whether guilty or innocent, is entitled to a fair and impartial trial according to the due and orderly course of the law. It is a duty resting upon this court to see that the guaranty of such trial, conferred by the Constitution and laws upon every citizen, shall be upheld.

Appeal from District Court, Kay County; John S. Burger, Judge.

Earl Quinn was convicted of murder, and he appeals.

Judgment reversed and the cause remanded, with directions.

EDWARDS J., dissenting.

James H. Mathers and James C. Mathers, both of Oklahoma City, for plaintiff in error.

J Berry King, Atty. Gen., F. M. Dudley, Asst. Atty. Gen., Bruce Potter, Co. Atty., of

p>Page Blackwell, and Ralph G. Harder, Asst. Co. Atty., of Newkirk, for the State.

CHAPPELL J.

Plaintiff in error, hereinafter called defendant, was convicted in the district court of Kay county of murder in the killing of Jessie Griffith, and his punishment fixed by the jury at death.

The record consists of four volumes, containing about 2,500 pages. In addition to oral argument, the state and defendant filed voluminous briefs.

The evidence of the state was that the Griffith sisters, Jessie and Zexie, left their home in Blackwell at about 5 o'clock on the morning of December 28, 1930, in an automobile, driving to Norman; that their dead bodies were found at about 9 o'clock, a. m. of that day, a mile and a half southeast of Tonkawa; that Jessie had been shot twice in the head and raped; that Zexie had been shot three times in the head, but her person not violated; that their automobile was found about fifteen miles southeast of Tonkawa, near Ceres; that there was blood upon a rear fender and the running board, but no blood in the car; that they had apparently been robbed of whatever money they possessed, except a small amount of change; that defendant, under the assumed name of Earl Howard, with his wife, was living in a rooming house in Tonkawa; that on the night before the murder he was in Tonkawa and out in the country to a dance and back in Tonkawa and out on the road around Tonkawa in his car until about 5 o'clock in the morning, armed with a small pistol, and in an intoxicated condition; that about a week previous, defendant's wife had purchased six 32 caliber shells for a pistol, and that five similar shells were found near the bodies of deceased; that on the 28th day of November, 1930, which was Thanksgiving Day, and about thirty days prior to the commission of the offense for which defendant was on trial, he stopped the car of Myrtle Patton, compelled her to go with him, and committed rape upon her at or near the place where the bodies of the Griffith sisters were found; that at about 3:30 or 4 o'clock on the morning of the killing, defendant stopped a young couple on the road south of Tonkawa and compelled them to go some distance with him; thereupon, learning who they were, he apologized and permitted them to leave; that, after the commission of the crime, he disappeared and was not apprehended until several months thereafter.

The evidence of the state tending in any wise to connect the defendant with the commission of the offense was wholly circumstantial.

The defendant did not take the witness stand. The defense was an alibi.

He complains of ninety-five specific errors, many of which are without any merit, and others are not supported by the record.

Defendant contends that the court erred in overruling his application for a change of venue.

He filed a verified application for a change of venue, and alleged: "That the minds of the inhabitants of Kay County, in which the case was then pending, were so biased and prejudiced against him that neither a fair and impartial jury could be secured nor a fair and impartial trial had in the county," because:

(1) All the newspapers of Kay county, including those of Blackwell, Ponca City, Tonkawa, Newkirk, and the daily papers of the state had published inflammatory, prejudicial, and untruthful statements against him, giving the details of the horrible crime, pictures of the deceased ladies and of defendant, with accounts of his fleeing and hiding; that there was no doubt of his guilt, and that the death penalty would be demanded; that all of the newspapers had a wide circulation in said county, and were generally read by the people who would compose the jury in the trial of said cause, and that by reason thereof the guilt of defendant was firmly fixed in the minds of the people constituting the jury who would try him, and would render the securing of a fair and impartial trial impossible.

(2) That the people of Kay county were so maddened and incensed over the commission of the crime that talk generally throughout the county was that defendant ought to be lynched, and that had he been apprehended at the time of the killing or soon thereafter he would have been mobbed, as was threatened, and that feeling against him still continued throughout the county to such an extent that during the preliminary trial held June 23 and 24, 1931, the above-mentioned newspapers printed and circulated the story that a mob was likely to take defendant and lynch him; that the courthouse was guarded to prevent mob violence; and that it was necessary to guard him heavily to keep him from being killed by the mob.

(3) That at the time of the preliminary trial the crowds were so great and the curiosity of probable jurors was so much aroused that it was necessary to lock the courtroom doors against the crowd; that more than a thousand people attempted to attend the preliminary trial and hear the testimony, and that for hours before the courtroom doors were opened they jammed the corridors, stairways, and yard of the courthouse, awaiting an opportunity to get into the courtroom, and that the court was compelled to and did keep armed guards in the courtroom during the preliminary trial to prevent any attempt at mob violence.

(4) That immediately after the commission of the offense and during the time of defendant's absence, and following his arrest and up to the time of the making of the application for a change of venue, the county attorney, with other officers, had talked to many persons in said county about his guilt, and had given out to the newspapers untrue, inflammatory, and prejudicial statements against him, alleging his guilt and promising the infliction of the death penalty, and that all of such untrue, inflammatory, and prejudicial statements were published by word of mouth and in the newspapers aforesaid, and were widely read, commented on, and believed by the people of Kay county, who usually compose juries in such cases.

(5) That the deceased had lived in Kay county for a number of years and had a large circle of friends, who had circulated throughout the county reports that defendant was guilty; that he was practically a stranger in the county, without friends or influence, and that by reason of all of the aforesaid, the minds of the people of Kay county, who would usually compose a jury for his trial, were so inflamed, biased, and prejudiced against him that it was impossible for him to secure a fair and impartial trial.

Attached to the application is a large number of newspaper articles showing the truth of the allegations of wide publication of matters prejudicial to him. The application was supported by affidavits of 29 citizens of Kay county, to the effect that a fair and impartial jury could not be secured and a fair and impartial trial could not be had in Kay county; some of the affidavits going into particular detail as to the discussion of defendant's guilt by the citizens of the county, the publication of the newspaper articles referred to, and the general...