5 N.J. Misc. 625 | N.J. | 1927
The plaintiffs in error, together with one Patrick Leehan, were indicted by the Hudson county grand jury for a conspiracy to prevent and obstruct justice, &c. Patrick Leehan was acquitted. The plaintiffs in error were convicted.
There is a single assignment of error which presents the facts and the legal question arising therefrom, and upon which facts the plaintiffs in error rely for a judgment of reversal.
The assignment reads as follows: “That, after the jury, before whom the issue of facts in the above-entitled cause were tried, had retired to their room for the purpose of considering and weighing the evidence and arriving at a verdict in the said cause, the deputy sheriff, in whose care and custody the jury had been entrusted during their deliberation, and who had been sworn when the jury was entrusted to his custody, by the prescribed oath, in response to a knock from
This assignment follows a stipulation between the counsel of the state and of defendants as to the facts concerning the matter of inquiry by the jury, and what occurred at the time.
We think this case is controlled by the case of State v. Duvel, 4 N. J. Mis. R. 719, where it was held by this court that a procedure of this character was so irregular and so likely to be prejudicial to a defendant and so charged with possibilities of harm and abuse as to require a reversal. On appeal to the Court of Errors and Appeals in the cited case, the judgment of the Supreme Court was affirmed at the February term, 1927. 5 N. J. Adv. R. 890.
Judgment is reversed, to the end that a venire de novo bp. awarded.