42 P. 507 | Idaho | 1895
The defendant was convicted of murder in the second degree at the February term, 1895, of the district court of Latah county, by causing the death of one Henrietta Hardy, an adopted child of the defendant, of about the age of two years, by poison. The crime is alleged to have been committed on the tenth day of February, 1895. The indictment was found on the 14th of February, 1895. Defendant was not in custody until after the finding of the indictment. ■On the 16th of February, 1895, defendant’s counsel, upon defendant’s arraignment, moved the court to order the grand jury which had found the indictment to be brought into court, to be examined “as to their qualifications, both as a body and as individual members thereof.” On the 18th of February, 1895, said motion was overruled by the court, and thereupon defendant’s counsel interposed a challenge to certain members cf said grand jury, naming them, upon the ground that “each and every one of them had formed an unqualified opinion as to the guilt of this defendant before the examination by them cf the case as grand jurors; and for the reason that some of the members of the grand jury had been spoken to by outside parties, not under oath, and other than the district attorney cf this district, in reference to the case, and prior to the time when the case was taken up by the grand jury for investigation; and that as to some of the members of the grand jury a state of mind existed prior to the examination of this case which would prevent them from acting impartially and without prejudice to the rights of this defendant; and to substantiate the foregoing ground of challenge, defendant, by her attorneys, asks that the said grand' jury be summoned, and ordered to appear in court, to be examined as to the causes of
The bill of exceptions does not show any motion in arrest of judgment, nor any action of the court upon such motion.. Numerous exceptions were taken to the admission of testimony upon the trial of this ease. We have examined the record with much care, and we are unable to find wherein the rules of evidence have been transgressed or misstated to the1 prejudice of the defendant. Witnesses were permitted to testify to threats-made by defendant, not only against the deceased child, but against its mother, and the husband of defendant. When we-take into consideration the relations of these parties, and their-characters as shown by the record, we cannot consider the admission of such testimony improper. The evidence shows the-defendant to have been a woman of not only vile character, but possessed of an utterly uncontrollable temper. The mother of' the child was a colored woman, with whom the husband of defendant had for some time had illicit relations, and with whom, at the time of the alleged homicide, he was living and cohabiting. That this condition of affairs had the effect of exciting