State v. Sterrett
| Decision Date | 15 March 1887 |
| Citation | 32 N.W. 387,71 Iowa 386 |
| Parties | STATE v. STERRETT. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Appeal from district court, Louisa county.
The defendant was convicted of the crime of manslaughter and sentenced to a term of imprisonment in the penitentiary.Newman & Blake, for defendant.
A. J. Baker, Atty. Gen., for the State.
This case has once before been in this court. See 68 Iowa, 76, and 25 N. W. Rep. 936. The circumstances of the occurrence in question, as shown by the evidence given on the first trial, are set out in the opinion. The evidence on the second trial was not materially different, and there is no necessity for a restatement of the facts.
1. The defendant introduced evidence which tended to prove that his character as a peaceable, orderly and law-abiding person, before the occurrence, had been good. The state, in rebuttal, was permitted, against defendant's objection, to introduce evidence tending to prove that he had previously been involved in personal difficulties, and that on one occasion he had threatened to shoot a person with whom he had had a difficulty. The court erred in admitting this evidence. State v. Gordon, 3 Iowa, 410. The reasons of the rule which excludes evidence of this character are fully stated in that case, and need not be repeated.
2. The district attorney was permitted, on the cross-examination of a witness, to ask him whether there had not been a number of murders committed in the neighborhood in which defendant lived, and he inquired particularly whether the witness did not know of the murder of a Swede in that neighborhood a short time before the occurrence in question. The testimony of the witness, as set out in the abstract, is very brief, and the connection in which these questions were asked is not shown, and we are not able to determine what object the district attorney had in view when he asked them; but we cannot conceive of any state of the case in which they would be competent. The defendant had the right to have the case tried and determined upon the evidence which related to the occurrence upon which the charge in the indictment was based. The question related to occurrences having no relation to that, and the evidence elicited could hardly fail to be prejudicial to him.
3. Defendant was a witness in his own behalf, and the court gave the following instruction, to which exception is taken: ...
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Anthony v. State
...v. Commonwealth, 72 Pa. St. 60, 13 Am. Rep. 649; Farris v. People, 129 Ill. 129, 16 Am. St. Rep. 283, 21 N.E. 821; State v. Sterrett, 71 Iowa 386, 32 N.W. 387.) Guilt cannot be shown nor can the weight of evidence increased by showing that defendant has committed other offenses. (People v. ......
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State v. Melvern
... ... unnecessarily prejudiced by thus directing the attention of ... the jury especially to him. Instructions substantially like ... instruction [32 Wash. 29] No. 18 in the case at bar have been ... frequently sustained by the courts. See State v. Sterrett ... (Iowa) 32 N.W. 387; People v. Calvin (Mich.) 26 ... N.W. 851; Haines v. Territory (Wyo.) 13 P. 8; ... State v. Elliott (Mo. Sup.) 2 S. W. 411; ... Territory v. Gonzales (N. M.) 68 P. 925; People ... v. Cronin, 34 Cal. 204; Anderson v. State, 104 ... ...
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State v. Pock
...547, 67 N.W. 619; State v. Thornton, 10 S.D. 349, 70 N.W. 196, 41 L.R.A. 530; Territory v. Pratt, 6 Dak. 483, 43 N.W. 711; State v. Sterrett, 71 Iowa, 386, 32 N.W. 387; Reagan v. United States, 157 U.S. 301, 15 S.Ct. 610, 39 L.Ed. 709; Brickwood-Sackett, Instructions, §§ 365, 2533-2552. It ......
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State v. Pock
...67 N. W. 619;State v. Thornton, 10 S. D. 349, 73 N. W. 196, 41 L. R. A. 530;Territory v. Pratt, 6 Dak. 483, 43 N. W. 711;State v. Sterrett, 71 Iowa, 386, 32 N. W. 387;Reagan v. United States, 157 U. S. 301, 15 Sup. Ct. 610, 39 L. Ed. 709; Brickwood-Sackett, Instructions, §§ 365, 2533-2552. ......