14 Ga. 709 | Ga. | 1854
By the Court.
delivering the opinion.
The effect of ^ this charge, as- thus presented by the record, was not to instruct the Jury that they must convict of murder or manslaughter, upon the admission of the counsel, but taken as a whole, it left the guilt or innocence of the prisoner to the Jury, to be determined by the evidence.
In the case-of Monroe vs. The State, (5 Ga. R. 85,) this Court has sanctioned the following positions: 1. That the formation and expression of an opinion, from rumor, is good cause of challenge for favor. 2. That wherever the "objection to a Juror would constitute sufficient causo of challenge to the favor, if discovered before trial, it will present a ground for new trial, if not discovered until after verdict. 3. The Juror will he heard in his own vindication.
Other cases might be cited, in support of the- correctness of these principles; but they nnv considered as settled by the ease to which I have referred, and which has been, for some years, a leading case in our Stab', on 'his subject; and I shall not refer to them. ,
We regard what was said by tlio Juror. h> this case, as being, while unexplained, sufficient to-disqualify him. Such remarks must be considered as evidence, prima fa-ie. that he did not stand “indifferent, as ho stoo-dunsworn" .
"We think, too, that the motion would have been strengthened, if it had appeared by the affidavit, that this Juror had been put upon his voir dire, in the usual way, and had shown himself competent by his answers. For the purposes of this case, however, wo will consider the showing sufficient; and that the prisoner wrould have been entitled to a new trial, but for what appears in the Juror’s vindication.
It may he thought, that a rule which allows the Juror this privilege of vindication, by his own oath, will work at disadvantage to the prisoner, as it is highly probable, that a Juror-who had rendered a verdict under such circumstances, will be under a very strong bias, to relieve himself from what might be, otherwise, an unpleasant and inconvenient odium, by making a partial showing for himself.
There is force in the suggestion. But what can be done ? Justice requires that the prisoner should be allowed to show that a Juror who has tried his case, had previously expressed, himself unfavorably towards him, if this came to his knowledge after the trial. It will, then, he an exceedingly hard case upon the Juror, if he cannot be beard in his own defence.— The charge may he entirely unjust; or, susceptible of easy and satisfactory explanation. If this cannot be shown or given, a Juror may be at the mercy of any one, wrho misapprehends, or chooses to misrepresent remarks which have fallen from him, and who is willing to make oath to the same.
Under the operation of such a rule, the situation of a Juror, in a criminal cause, would bo scarcely more to be envied, than the condition of tbe criminal himself.
Had this Juror been put upon triors, and after proof that he had used such language as has been imputed to him, he had made such explanation as that just quoted, it is very plain to us, that he should have been considered a competent Juror.— Upon this motion for new trial, the Court is called on to place itself, as it were, in the position of triors, and thus to determine this question.
We hold, then, that if the Juror was prepared to weigh the evidence and decide according to that, as he says he was, and if he did so decide, without reference to the expressions which he had used, as he says he did, he was above all exception, notwithstanding the declarations which had been made by him.
Under these circumstances, wo have accepted the statement
This vindication of the Juror, is not without support from the statements made by five of his fellow Jurors, who testify to such demeanor, in the jury-room, as tends to exhibit him in' the light of an impartial Juror. ¡
Judgment affirmed.