State v. Scruggs
| Decision Date | 27 December 1894 |
| Citation | 20 S.E. 720,115 N.C. 805 |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE. v. SCRUGGS et al. |
Trial for Murder—Illness of Juror.
On a trial for murder, it is the duty of the court, when one of the jurors is unable from illness to continue with the case, to direct a mistrial, and hold the prisoner.
Appeal from superior court, Rutherford county; Boykln, Judge.
Prosecution of Bird Scruggs and others for murder. From an order overruling defendants' motion for their discharge, they appeal. Dismissed.
A special venire was returned by order of the court, and a jury selected and impaneled. The state's witnesses had been sworn, and one of them had begun to testify. He was interrupted by one of the jurors, who stated that he was sick, and unable to continue to serve as a juror. He was examined at length by the court touching bis physical condition. He declared that he had been attacked by sickness; that he could not sit on the case as a juror by reason of his illness; and that it was necessary that he be excused. The court therefore found as a fact that the juror was unable, by reason of his sickness, to continue to serve as a juror in the case. The prisoners' counsel offered to proceed with 11 jurors. The solicitor for the state refused to so proceed. The prisoners' counsel then proposed to select another juror from the special venire, which had not been exhausted. The solicitor declined the proposition, the said venire having been discharged, and their names having become confused and commingled with those already passed on. Then the prisoners' counsel offered that the sheriff should call from the bystanders, and a juror be selected from them; but the state did not accept the suggestion. Thereupon the court excused the sick juror, and ordered a mistrial and new trial. The prisoners moved for their discharge. The court refused to discharge them. Prisoners excepted and appealed.
Justice & Justice, for appellants.
The Attorney General, for the State.
No appeal lies in a criminal action until after the rendition of final judgment in the cause. State v. Twiggs, 90 N. C. 685. If the case were properly before us, as on an application for a certiorari, we should find no ground for granting the writ, for it has long been settled that in a trial for a capital felony, for sufficient cause, the judge may discharge the jury, and hold the prisoner for another trial, in which case it is his duty to find the facts, and set them out in the record, so that his...
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State v. Emery
... ... i. e., a body of twelve men in a court of justice duly ... selected and empaneled in the case to be tried. State v ... Rogers, 162 N.C. 656, 78 S.E. 293, 46 L.R.A.,N.S., 38, ... Ann.Cas. 1914A, 867; State v. Berry, 190 N.C. 363, ... 130 S.E. 12; State v. Scruggs, 115 N.C. 805, 20 S.E ... 720; State v. Stewart, 89 N.C. 563; People v ... Powell, 87 Cal. 348, 25 P. 481, 11 L.R.A. 72; 31 Am.Jur ... 557; 11 Am.Jur. 684. The jury is to be composed of twelve ... 'good (or free) and lawful men'--liberi et legales ... homines. State v. Dalton, 206 ... ...
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State v. Beal
... ... Dry, supra ... It ... follows, therefore, as a necessary corollary, that, if the ... order of mistrial were properly entered, and we think it was, ... the defendants' subsequent plea of former jeopardy cannot ... be sustained. State v. Tyson, supra; State v ... Scruggs, 115 N.C. 805, 20 S.E. 720; State v ... Carland, 90 N.C. 668; State v. Washington, 90 ... N.C. 664. In capital cases as well as others, where, for ... sufficient cause found and set forth in the record, the judge ... discharges the jury before verdict, it is proper to hold the ... ...