Turner v. State
Decision Date | 22 February 1909 |
Docket Number | 13,614 |
Citation | 48 So. 409,94 Miss. 458 |
Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Parties | SARAH TURNER v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI |
FROM the circuit court of Harrison county, HON. WILLIAM H. HARDY Judge.
Madame Turner, appellant, was indicted and tried for the murder of one Joseph Turner, convicted of manslaughter, sentenced to the penitentiary for a term of three years, and appealed to the supreme court.
The opinion of the court sufficiently states the facts.
Reversed and remanded.
Evans & Hardy, for appellant.
The remarks of counsel for the prosecution, made in the argument before the jury, constituted reversible error. Brown v State, 81 Miss. 143.
The appellant did not choose to introduce in evidence her good character, hence the state could not introduce evidence as to her character being bad. Greenleaf, Ev. (16th ed.), 39 § 14, b.
"It is prejudicial error entitling the defendant to be granted a new trial to allow counsel for the prosecution in his argument to the jury to comment upon the failure of the defendant to offer evidence of his previous good character." 12 Cyc. 578.
The statement of learned counsel assisting in the prosecution was improper and unwarranted; but it should not work a reversal of the judgment below where, as shown by the whole record, the result of the trial was proper. Jurors are presumed to be men of intelligence and discretion. The presumption is not to be indulged that they are swept from their feet or unduly prejudiced by every side remark of counsel.
OPINIONWHITFIELD C. J.
During the progress of the trial of this case, which is an exceedingly close one on its facts, special counsel employed to assist the district attorney in the prosecution, in the course of his argument to the jury, used the following language: ...
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Pruitt v. State
...was testifying, did you see him making eyes at her?" Cavanah v. State, 56 Miss. 299; Martin v. State, 63 Miss. 505; Turner v. State, 94 Miss. 458, 48 So. 409; Story v. State, 133 Miss. 476; Darby State, 121 Miss. 869; De Jean v. State, 108 Miss. 146; Roby v. State, 147 Miss. 575, 113 So. 18......
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De Jean v. State
... ... His ... character had not been put in evidence. This comment by the ... district attorney in his argument is prejudicial error in ... this case where the proof is by circumstantial evidence and ... defendant's character is an element of importance in the ... question of his guilt. Turner v. State, 94 ... Miss. 458, 48 So. 409, 19 Ann. Cas. 407 ... Appellants ... contend that there was error in the propounding of the ... questions to appellant, De Jean, by the district attorney, ... which are set out in the fifth paragraph of the assignment of ... errors. It was ... ...