6 Ga. App. 539 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1909
As finally corrected, the bill of exceptions presents the following statement of facts. At the December term of the city court of Cartersville the plaintiff in error filed a written demand for trial, which was allowed by the court and spread upon the minutes. At the March term of the court, after the jury had been discharged, he made a motion to be discharged and acquitted, on the ground that he had not been tried during the term. At the hearing of the motion the solicitor insisted that' the discharge should not be granted, because during the March term the defendant had moved to continue the case. The testimony taken on this point was in sharp conflict, the defendant insisting that the motion to continue was made by the State, and the State’s counsel insisting that the motion was made by the defendant; but it is undisputed that the court did not grant the motion for a continuance, but postponed the case to a later date during the same term. The case having been called subsequently, and the óourt having entered upon the trial of it to the extent of having tested several of the jurors on their voir dire, the judge decided to continue the case, out of prudence, as he expressed it, on the ground that too many of the jurors were subject to challenge because they had heard the testimony in a companion case. It appears from the record, however, that there was in court a regular panel of eighteen jurors, as well as several talesmen. There are other details in the bill of exceptions, but they appear to be immaterial.
Under our statute passed in deference to the constitutional guarantee of a speedy trial, the defendant is entitled to enter a demand