State v. Stonestreet
| Citation | 166 S.E. 378,112 W.Va. 668 |
| Decision Date | 01 November 1932 |
| Docket Number | 7295. |
| Parties | STATE v. STONESTREET. |
| Court | Supreme Court of West Virginia |
Submitted October 26, 1932.
Syllabus by the Court.
Jurors may be questioned on voir dire within reasonable limits to ascertain facts enabling parties to exercise intelligently right to peremptory challenge.
Nature and extent of examination of jurors should be left largely to trial court's discretion.
In prosecution for grand larceny in inducing another to join lodge, on false representation of affiliation with Masonic lodges, in which defendant stated prosecution was result of hostility between local lodges, refusal to permit questioning of jurors whether they belonged to Masonic order held error.
Instruction authorizing jury to base finding on other false pretenses concerning which there was no evidence, held error in larceny prosecution.
1. Jurors may be questioned on their voir dire not only for the purpose of showing cause for a challenge, but also, within reasonable limits, to elicit such facts as enable the parties to exercise intelligently their right of peremptory challenge. The nature and extent of the examination, however should be left largely to the discretion of the trial court.
2. A jury should not be authorized in an instruction to base its finding upon an issue or fact not supported by substantial evidence.
Error to Circuit Court, Taylor County.
W. W Stonestreet was convicted of grand larceny, and he brings error.
Reversed and remanded for new trial.
Eugene H. Long and James G. Jeter, Jr., both of Morgantown, for plaintiff in error.
Howard B. Lee, Atty. Gen., and W. Elliott Nefflen, Asst. Atty. Gen for the State.
W. W. Stonestreet was convicted of grand larceny and sentenced to one year in the state penitentiary.
Defendant and George C. Phillips induced Howe R. Knotts to become a member of a lodge, in the city of Grafton, of the order of Ancient Free Masons, and to pay to them the membership fee of $56.50, upon the representation of defendant (according to the testimony of Knotts and Phillips) that such membership would also admit him (Knotts) to lodges of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, "Or any other Masonic lodge in the world." Dr. D. C. Peck, Grand Master in West Virginia of the order of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, testified as a witness for the state that the two orders were unrelated, and that neither extended fraternal privileges to the members of the other. Defendant denied making the alleged representation, and contended that he explained to Knotts that the two organizations were separate and distinct.
Among the points of error assigned are: (a) The refusal of the trial court, at the request of defendant, to ask the jurors on their voir dire if any one of them was a member of a Masonic order; and (b) the giving of instruction No. 1 for the state.
Under the rule prevailing in most jurisdictions, parties are entitled to question the jurors on their voir dire, not only for the purpose of...
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