149 Ky. 495 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1912
Opinion of the Court by
Affirming,
Ed Lucas was indicted in the Fayette Circuit Court for the murder of James Keyes. Upon trial, he was found guilty and given an indeterminate sentence of two to twenty-one years in the State penitentiary. In the motion for a new trial in the lower court, several grounds were assigned, hut here counsel for appellant seeks a reversal solely upon the ground that the trial court erred, to his client’s prejudice, in limiting him in argument to- thirty minutes. It is insisted that, in presenting the defense for one charged with murder, the time
This same question has been several times presented and passed upon by this court. In the leading case of Combs v. Commonwealth, 97 Ky., 24, the trial court limited the time for argument to three hours a side. Conceiving that that time was insufficient to enable him properly to present his client’s defense, counsel for the accused sought a reversal here. In passing upon the question this court, speaking through Judge Lewis, said:
“What length of time the ends of justice and rights of an accused party require should be allowed for argument to the jury on a criminal trial must from necessity be generally left to the sound discretion of the trial court; otherwise, an undue portion of the time of a court might be needlessly consumed in trial of one cause, to detriment of other business and rights of other parties. Therefore, this court will not reverse upon the ground too short time was allowed, unless satisfied that discretion had been abused. Counsel were allowed in this case three hours to each side, which, the contrary not appearing, we must conclude was not so short time as to prejudice substantial rights of appellant.”
In the more recent cases of Scott v. Commonwealth, 148 Ky., 80, and Stout v. Commonwealth, 148 Ky., 199, the rule announced in the Combs case was adhered to and reaffirmed, in the case of Stout, this court holding:
“We have ruled in a number of cases that the time that shall be allowed for argument is a matter in the discretion of the trial judge, and that unless it affirmatively appears that this discretion has been abused to the prejudice of the accused, it will not amount to a reversible error. * * * * The trial court should, of course, •allow counsel for the accused in every case reasonable time and opportunity to present the reasons why there should be an acquittal, but it is obvious that the time that should be allowed depends upon the facts and circumstances of each particular case. It is not to be altogether regulated by the number of witnesses that are introduced, as a very complicated state of facts might be presented by the testimony of a single witness. It is rather to be controlled by the simplicity of the facts and circumstances surrounding the transaction.”
Judgment affirmed.