Thomas v. People

• Citation: 39 Mich. 309
• Court: Supreme Court of Michigan
• Decision Date: 15 October 1878
• Parties: Henry Thomas v. The People

39 Mich. 309

Henry Thomas v. The People

Supreme Court of Michigan

October 15, 1878

Submitted June 19, 1878

Error to Ionia.

Assault with intent to kill and murder.

Judgment reversed.

Wisner & Johnson and Charles S. May for plaintiff in error. One charged with crime is entitled to trial by a common law jury chosen from the vicinage, Cooley Const. Lim., 318-19; 2 Kent's Com., 12; 3 Story on Const., 654; Comp. L §§ 5977-81; Pub. Acts 1877, p. 113; People v Williams, 24 Mich. 161; State v. Vegas, 19 La Ann., 105; State v. DaRocha, 20 La. Ann., 356; State v. Morgan, 20 La. Ann., 442; State v. Jennings, 15 Rich. 42; State v. Pratt, id., 47; Conner v. State, 4 Yerg. 137; Perry v. State, 9 Wis. 19; Gardner v. Turner, 9 Johns. 260; People v. M'Kay, 18 Johns. 212; a public prosecutor may not suppress testimony, Wellar v. People, 30 Mich. 16; Hurd v. People, 25 Mich. 415; Maher v. People, 10 Mich. 225.

Attorney General Otto Kirchner for the People.

OPINION

Cooley, J.

Plaintiff in error was convicted of an assault with intent to kill and murder one William Novenger. When the jury was impaneled, a challenge was interposed to the array; and this challenge presents the first ground of alleged error.

I. Under the statutes of this State the supervisor and township clerk of each township are required, at the time appointed by law for the review of the assessment roll for the year, to make out and return to the county clerk a list of persons possessing the requisite qualifications, to serve as petit jurors for the ensuing year. Comp. L., § 5977. The names appearing on each of these lists are to be written on slips of paper and then made up into a package, and the slips on which are written the names returned for the previous year are at the same time to be destroyed. When a jury is to be drawn, the names thus returned from the whole county are placed together in a box, and the drawing is made therefrom by the county clerk. Public Acts 1877, p. 113. This statement is sufficient for an understanding of the questions raised by the challenge.

The trial of plaintiff in error took place early in 1878, and before the time for the review of the assessment rolls for that year. The lists from which the names of jurors should be drawn were consequently those returned for the year 1877. In respect to these it was shown: first, that from one township in the county no list was returned for that year; second, that from the remaining townships in the county, lists were returned, but that the time of making and returning the same varied from the statutory time, in nearly every instance, and in one case twenty-six days. The failure to comply with the statute in making and returning these lists was the reason assigned for the challenge.

There is nothing in this reason. The time for returning the lists was of no importance to parties litigant. The statute named a time when it would be convenient to make it, because the supervisor and clerk would then be together on other business; but a list made earlier or later would be equally good, for nothing depended on the time. Nor was the failure to make any return at all a fatal defect, for the statute expressly provides that in such cases the names previously returned shall be retained and made use of. Comp. L., § 5983. The challenge was properly overruled.

II. On the trial it appeared from the evidence given on behalf of the people that the assault was committed by the discharge of a loaded pistol at Novenger, thereby inflicting upon him a severe wound. Plaintiff in error was keeper of a saloon, and was in it with his son and one McCacklin. Novenger and several other persons undertook to enter it, and were ordered off. Considerable evidence was put in which had some tendency to show a persistent...