The plaintiff in error presents two reasons why his conviction of a violation of the labor-contract law of 1903 (Acts of 1903, p. 90) was contrary to law.
In the Thornton case Judge Cobb was expressly dealing only with the 14th section of the act creating the city court of Amerieus (Acts 1900, p. 101), which relates to civil cases alone, and which section employs the same language as the portion of the act creating the city court of Savannah, which had been construed by Judge Crawford in the Gleason case; and therefore he very properly held, under the wording of the 14th section, that while the judge of the city court of Americus has authority to toy civil cases without a jury in certain instances, “he is not required to do this, if, in his discretion, a jury trial is to be preferred.” As the Gleason case is cited as authority in the Thornton case,
In the case now before ué it does not appear whether the defendant was or was not under bond; and the defendant was arraigned, so far as appears from the record, at the regular term of the court when juries were impaneled qualified to try him. In our opinion, the latter fact does not affect the merits of the case; because the defendant, in writing, waived trial by jury and demanded to be tried by the court. As we construe section 30 of the act establishing the city court of Americus, when the defendant waived jury trial and, by writing entered on the accusation, demanded a trial before the court without a jury, the court had no discretion, but it became the judge’s duty to hear and determine this defendant’s case. After making provision for various contingencies likely to arise upon the arraignment of the prisoner, the legislature declared, in the concluding sentence of the section just referred to, that “If the defendant waives trial by jury, then the said judge shall proceed to hear and determine such criminal cases,” etc. In this provision the legislature seems to have intentionally adopted the suggestion of. Judge Crawford in the Gleason case, by using identically the language which would make the duty of the judge, as to a trial of cases in city courts, mafidatory instead of discretionary. There may be instances in which the right to trial by a learned and upright judge is as substantial as the right of trial by jury. At any rate, it is manifest from the language employed in the act now before us that when
In delivering the opinion in Logan v. State, 86 Ga. 266 (12 S. E. 406), Judge Simmons says: “There is no reason why a prisoner in a case of this kind should not have the right to be tried by a conscientious and intelligent judge, if he prefers it, as well as the right to be tried by a jury. There may be reasons, indeed, why he should prefer the former to the latter, especially as it may often conduce to the speedy trial which it is the policy of the law to accord him.” We apprehend that the waiver of trial by jury, when the court is not in regular term, may in some degree be influenced by the desire for a speedy trial; and yet, on the other hand, the fact that, even though a jury is present, still the defendant prefers to be tried by the judge does not tend to delay the trial of the case.
For these’ reasons we think that the judge erred in not granting a new trial. Judgment reversed.