121 Iowa 395 | Iowa | 1903
The appellant is a physician, and for several years prior to the date of the crime with which he is charged conducted a sanitarium or hospital at Lamoni, in Decatur county. Maud Stone, a young unmarried woman, about twenty-one years of age, residing with her parents upon a farm in said county, entered the appellant’s sanitarium about January 22, 1901, and died there one week later. A post-mortem examination revealed, as it is claimed, evidences that she had been lately pregnant, and had suffered an abortion. It is the theory of the state that the pregnancy was the result of an intimacy between the young woman and one Ira Hammond (who is jointly indicted with the appellant), and that at the instigation or employment' of Hammond, appellant, by the use of violent and unnatural means, produced a miscarrige or premature delivery of the foetus, in which operation the young woman received injuries causing her death. Defendant pleads not guilty to the charge.. On the trial he admits that Miss Stone came to his sanitarium, and there died, but avers that, if she suffered an abortion, the same had occurred before she came under his care, and that he had no knowledge thereof, or part therein; With this brief outline of the case, we proceed to a consideration of the principal points relied upon in the arguments of counsel.
The appellant’s'chalienge to this juror was overruled, and upon this ruling error is assigned. In these days when the story of every alleged crime of a serious nature is promptly heralded by the newspapers, and comes quickly to the knowledge of the great body of intelligent citizens of the county, it is scarcely possible, even if it were thought desirable, to obtain a jury of average men having no impressions or opinions as to the merits of the case. In view of this fact we have in numerous cases refused to sustain an appeal based upon the overruling of challenges, where, notwithstanding such impressions or opinions, it fairly appears that the juror is fair-minded and unprejudiced, and is able and willing to render an impartial verdict. State v. Bruce, 48 Iowa, 530; State v. Sopher, 70 Iowa, 496; State v. Vatter, 71 Iowa, 558; State v. Munchrath, 78 Iowa, 271; State v. Field, 89 Iowa, 35; State v. Brady, 100 Iowa, 194; State v. Bone, 114 Iowa, 542. In the opinion of some of the members of this court, some of the cases above cited have gone to the extreme verge of liberality in this respect, and the rule thus established ought not to be further extended. The question to be de-
It must not be overlooked, however, that the right to have an impartial jury, who will hear the case calmly and dispassionately, and render a verdict Upon the evidence, and the evidence alone, uninfluenced by public clamor or preconceived opinions, is absolutely essential to the proper administration of justice. To put a man upon trial before jurors who already believe him guilty — no matter how upright such jurors may be, nor how sincere their purpose not to allow their prejudices any influence upon their verdict — is to expose the accused to a hazard wholly inconsistent with the just and humane theory upon which our criminal procedure is founded. It is readily conceivable that an opinion of a defendant’s guilt may be so qualified in the juror’s mind as not to be a sufScient ground oí challenge. For instance, a juror who says that, if the statements be has heard or read be true, then, in his judgment, the accused is guilty, is not necessarily subject to challenge. State v. George, 62 Iowa, 682; State v. Ostrander, 18 Iowa, 451; Trimble v. State, 2 G. Greene, 404; State v. Sater, 8 Iowa, 420. In such case the-opinion of guilt is based upon the hypothesis that certain facts exist, but the truth of the hyothesis itself is a matter upon which the juror’s mind is still open and undetermined. Where, however, the juror discovers that he has become convinced of the truth of the alleged evidence, and therefrom has reached a satisfactory conclusion of the guilt of the accused, a very different situation is presented. He may be a man of fair intelligence and pure purpose, sincerely in
The case made by the state was almost entirely circumstantial, while the defendant’s case consisted almost entirely of direct evidence in denial and explanation. Now, if the court had said to the jury, ‘‘The defendant’s witnesses may have committed perjury, but the facts and circumstances proven by the state cannot lie,” thisexpression of opinion would be so clearly erroneous as to leave no room for argument in its support. We have no thought that the court intended to convey this idea, but it remains true that such is not an entirely unnatural paraphrase of its language, and such, we think, would be its weight and effect upon the mind of the average juror. It is a holding up of one kind or class of evidence in contrast with another; one being given the merit of absolute verity, and the other discredited by the possibility, if not, indeed, the suspicion, of falsehood. In other words, we think the jury could hardly fail to understand from this charge that, as a matter of law, or in the opinion of the court, the cir-cumstancial evidence to which they had listened was of greater weight and of more convincing force than the
We do not disparage circumstantial evidence. It is legal evidence, the value and necessity of which are beyond question; but the point we wish to emphasize is that
Other questions discussed are not likely to arise-upon a retrial, and we do not consider them.
For the reasons stated, the judgment below is reversed, and the case remanded to the district court for a new trial. — -.Reversed.