Wash. v. State

• Decision Date: 10 May 1905
• Citation: 50 S.E. 920,122 Ga. 735
• Parties: WASHINGTON. v. STATE.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

122 Ga. 735

50 S.E. 920

WASHINGTON.

v.STATE.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

May 10, 1905.

GRAND JURY—QUALIFICATION OF MEMBERS.

While the law requires that the names of grand jurors shall be placed in a grand-jury box, and also that there shall be a certified list of the names so placed therein, when the minutes of the court show that a grand juror's name has been drawn from the box this is conclusive evidence of his competency to serve as a grand juror, notwithstanding his name may not appear upon the list as made up by the clerk, and certified by him and the jury commissioners.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Error from Superior Court, Butts County; E. J. Reagan, Judge.

Jeffie Washington was convicted of crime, and brings error. Affirmed.

Washington was indicted for seduction. He filed a plea in abatement on the ground that the names of two of the grand jurors who returned the bill of indictment were not on the grand-jury list at the time the indictment was found. The evidence introduced on the trial of the issue raised by the plea showed that the names of the jurors referred to did not appear on the jury list, but the minutes of the court for the term at which the indictment was found showed that the names of the two jurors were drawn from the grand-jury box. The court permitted the clerk of the superior court to testify, over objection of the accused, that the names of the two jurors were put in the grand-jury box. The plea in abatement was overruled, and the accused excepted; assigning error upon this judgment, and upon the admission of the testimony of the clerk above referred to.

R. L. Berner, for plaintiff in error.

O. H.B. Bloodworth, Sol. Gen., and M. W. Beck, for the State.

COBB, J. The law provides that the grand jury shall be made up of jurors whose names are drawn from a box which has been prepared by the jury commissioners in the manner prescribed by law. The law imposes upon the jury commissioners the duty of selecting from the tax digest the names of upright and intelligent persons to serve as jurors, and the further duty of selecting from this number not exceeding two-fifths of the most intelligent and upright persons to serve as grand jurors. The names of the persons thus selected are required to be placed upon tickets, and these tickets placed in a box, and the grand jury is to be made up of persons whose names are drawn from the box thus prepared. There is no provision of law for constituting a grand jury, other than by a drawing of names from this box. See Pen. Code 1895, §§ 818, 819. After the tickets containing the names of the persons selected by the jury...