State v. Turner
| Decision Date | 30 November 1908 |
| Docket Number | 17,352 |
| Citation | 122 La. 371,47 So. 685 |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE v. TURNER |
Appeal from Fourth Judicial District Court, Parish of Lincoln Robert Brooks Dawkins, Judge.
R. W Turner was convicted of horse stealing, and he appeals. Affirmed.
Otis William Bullock and Thomas Washington Robertson, for appellant.
Walter Guion, Atty. Gen., and Frederick Fantleroy Preaus, Dist Atty. (Price, Roberts, Warren & Price and Ruffin Golson Pleasant, of counsel), for the State.
The defendant was sentenced for three years at hard labor for horse stealing.
The theft is alleged to have been committed on the 6th of August. The information was filed on the 25th of August. The jury term of the court was to begin on the 5th of October. On the 2d of October an attorney who had been employed by defendant asked that the case be not fixed at the term about to begin, for the reason that he, the attorney, would not be able to attend, owing to other professional engagements, and that defendant had no other lawyer, having been unable to come to an agreement as to fees with any one of the local bar.
The professional engagements in question existed already at the time of the employment of the counsel by defendant.
On October 5th, the first day of the term, the court denied this application, and fixed the case for the 8th, and appointed counsel to represent defendant. On the 8th the case was tried, the defendant represented by the counsel appointed by the court.
The contention is now made that the defendant was entitled to a postponement of his trial in order that he might have the services of the counsel of his own selection. The contention is without merit. An accused cannot secure a postponement of his trial by employing counsel who at the time of the employment have engagements that will preclude attendance when the case is to be tried. In People v. Goldenson, 76 Cal. 328, 19 P. 161, it was held that being a member of the Legislature was ground for continuance only where the counsel had been employed before the commencement of the session on which the counsel was in attendance.
The next reliance of defendant is upon the admission of a confession which is said to have not been voluntary. Mr. Price, the person whose horse had been stolen, visited defendant in jail at defendant's request to have a talk with him. At this interview, defendant was so overcome by emotion as to be unable to talk, and Price withdrew, promising to come again whenever sent for. Defendant sent for him, and at this second interview spoke freely about his having stolen the horse. The conversation was carried on in mild conversational tone. No threats were made and no promises. Price, however, assumed in speaking to defendant that he was guilty, and, among other things, told him that, if he had caught him on the night of the theft, he would have shot him. He also said to him:
"If this had been your first offense I might sympathize with you, but the manner in which you got the horse, and manipulated things after getting it, leads me to believe that this is not your first offense, and I have no sympathy with you."
The conversation was carried on in the presence of the sheriff, and defendant had been told that Price had said that:
"If defendant should be taken out of prison on a straw...
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McCue v. State
...v. Blain, 118 Iowa, 466, 92 N. W. 650; State v. Nimerick, 74 Kan. 658, 87 Pac. 722; Lawson v. Com., 152 Ky. 113, 153 S. W. 56; State v. Turner, 122 La. 371, 47 South. 685; People v. Quimby, 134 Mich. 625, 96 N. W. 1061; State v. Schreiber, 111 Minn. 138, 126 N. W. 536; Newcomb v. State, 37 ......
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State v. Henry
... ... State v ... Wilson, 181 La. 61, 158 So. 621 ... It has ... been held that other professional engagements existing at the ... time of counsel's employment do not constitute legal ... grounds for the granting of a continuance. State v ... Turner, 122 La. 371, 47 So. 685.Furthermore, under ... Article 320 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, ‘ * * * ... granting or refusing of any continuance is within the sound ... discretion of the trial judge; * * *.’ ... We ... find nothing in the above bills which would indicate that ... ...
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