172 Iowa 88 | Iowa | 1915
A team of horses belonging to Henry Russell was stolen from the owner’s premises in the south part of Taylor county, near the Missouri state line, on the night of March 10, 1914. On the morning of the second day thereafter, they were found in a livery stable in the town of Mary-ville, across the line in Missouri. The theory of the state is that on the afternoon of March 10th, the appellant, who liyed in Blockton, Taylor county, of this state, together with one Lloyd Conder, hired a team at a liyery stable in Blockton and drove south to Isadora,- on the Missouri side of the state line. From this place, they are said to have gone to the town of Athelstan, on the Iowa side of the line, where they remained until about ten o’clock P. M., and then went on about six miles to the Russell farm, where they stole the horses. The larceny having been accomplished, the state further claims that appellant drove home to Blockton with the team which they had hired at that place, while Conder took the stolen team to a livery stable in Maryville, Missouri, where they were afterwards discovered and reclaimed by the owner. Both appellant and Conder were indicted for the alleged offense. Conder entered a plea of guilty, and at the time of the trial below, had been in the penitentiary several months. He was used as a witness for the state against appellant and told in detail his story of the crime. According to this testimony, appellant and Conder were together in Blockton from
The point upon which counsel dwell very largely is that the corroborating evidence, if all true, is still consistent with innocence of the appellant, and therefore is not such corroboration as the law requires. But the sufficiency of the corroboration is not dependent upon any such test, nor do we think counsel can present any well considered precedent or cite us to any established principle of law which sustains the rule for which they contend. The statute does not require that the corroboration of itself alone shall be sufficient to make a conclusive case of guilt or that it shall be entirely inconsistent with innocence. It is sufficient if, when rationally considered, it has some legitimate tendency to connect the accused with the commission of the crime, and thereby lend support to the credibility of the accomplice. And it is the case thus made by the testimony of the accomplice, together with the corroborating evidence and other proof admitted on the trial, on which the verdict is to be returned. If the question of guilt depends upon circumstantial evidence, then, of
“Lloyd Conder, one of the witnesses for the state, has testified in this case and has admitted he was present and aided in stealing the horses referred to in the indictment. You are instructed: That the defendant, John Bosch, cannot be convicted on the testimony of Lloyd Conder alone; but in order to justify a conviction, the testimony of said Lloyd Conder must be corroborated by other credible evidence which shall tend to connect the defendant with the commission of the crime charged, and the corroboration is not sufficient if it merely show the commission of the offense or the circumstances thereof, but it must tend to connect the defendant with the commission of the' crime charged. To be sufficient, the corroborating evidence should apply to some part of the testimony that is material to the issue. It must also tend to show that the defendant committed the crime charged in the indictment. It is not sufficient corroboration to prove the offense was in fact committed in a manner described by Lloyd Conder, the accomplice, but you must further find that there is evidence which involves the defendant with the commission of the crime charged. And where' circumstances alone are relied upon as corroborative evidence, the circumstances must be 'criminative and be inconsistent to some extent with the innocence of the defendant. ’ ’
The exception taken is to the effect that the instruction in substance assumes or takes for granted the truth of Conder’s testimony, and that all the jury is required to do to convict the defendant is to find that Conder has been corroborated
It may be added that the industry of counsel has failed to find any precedent for a reversal because of this instruction, which is often given in substantially the same form, except in the state of Texas, where there seem to be decisions sustaining the point made by appellant. The tendency of this court is to restrict rather than to enlarge the application of rules by which courts were once wont to imagine or presume prejudice because of a technically inexact statement of the law to the jury, unless the error is of such material character
We find no sufficient reason for ordering a new trial, and the judgment appealed from is therefore — Affirmed.