85 Md. 562 | Md. | 1897
delivered the opinion of the Court.
The question in this case is a narrow one and arises upon a motion to strike out a judgment on an indictment for murder. The prisoner was tried before a jury in the Circuit Court for Allegany County, found guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenceed to be hanged. The motion was overruled and hence this appeal.
We have no doubt as to the question in this case, and are of .opinion that the ruling of the Court below was correct. “The prevailing practice in the Courts of this State, when a jury has agreed upon their verdict, the prisoner being present in Court, is to direct the verdict to be taken, in'the usual form, and if there is no request for a poll of the jury, to require the verdict thus taken to be recorded. The manifest object of a poll of the jury is to call on each juror to
Rut it is insisted that there was error in receiving the verdict in the absence of the prisoner’s counsel. This question has been distinctly ruled upon in some of the States. In Martin v. The State, 79 Wis. 175, it was held that there was no error in receiving the verdict in the absence of the attorney for the defendant. The verdict was received while the Court was regularly in session, and if the counsel for the defendant desired to be present when the verdict was received, there was nothing to hinder his being present, and it was not the duty of the Court to send for him. It was sufficient if the defendant himself was present when the verdict was received and there is no complaint in -that respect.- Approved in Barnard v. State, 88 Wis. 659. In the case of O' Bannon v. State, 76 Ga. 32, the question :is also passed upon, and the Court said: “ There was no
In this State the rule has never prevailed that a prisoner is entitled, as a matter of absolute right, to have counsel present when the verdict is rendered. If such a rule was established it would lead to serious inconvenience in the trial of criminal cases, and might often result in a mistrial of the case.
There was therefore no reversible error in overruling the motion in this case. As far as the record discloses, the prisoner enjoyed every right and privilege guaranteed by our laws and Constitution to persons accused of crime, and as there is no error, such as the prisoner has a right to complain of, the judgment will be affirmed.
Judgment affirmed with costs.