delivered the opinion of the court.
By an indictment returned in the. District Court of Tarrant County, Texas, the plaintiff in error was charged with the crime of murder. Having been duly arraigned and pleaded not guilty, the accused (a negro) moved to quash the indictment, on the ground, stated in writing under oath, that all persons of the African race had been excluded from the grand jury, because of their race, although about one-fourth of the inhabitants of the county, competent under the law to act as grand jurors, werе of that race. The facts upon which the motion was based were set out, and the accused, in, the written motion, prayed that testimony bе heard in support of its grounds. The State’s attorney, in writing, denied such discrimination and offered to prove that only about one hundred and fifty persоns of the African race in the county, as compared with twelve thousand whites, were competent under the law jto act as grand jurors.
Thе accused then moved in writing, verified by his oath, to quash the panel of petit jurors, upon the ground that from the panel had been excluded all persons of the African race, because of. their race, although about one-fourth of the persons in the county competent under the law to serve as jurоrs were of that race. The facts set out in that motion were also denied in writing by the State’s attorney.
Both motions were overruled by the cоurt* the accused excepting. There was a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree, and the accused was sentenced to suffer death. Thе judgment of conviction was affirmed in the Court of Criminal Appeals, the highest court of the State in which a decision of the case could be had. One of the assignments of error in that court was the overruling of the motion to quash the indictment, . but no error was there assigned in respect of the overruling of the motion to quash the panel of petit jurors.
It is not contended that the constitution or laws of Texas authorized any discrimination, on account of race merely, in the selection of grand or petit jurors. Nor is it contended that
But the record before us makes no such case. Although the accused in each of his written motions prayed the court to hear evidence thereori, it does not appear that he introduced any evidence whatever to prove discrimination against his race, becausе of their color, or made any actual offer of evidence in support of either motion. The reasonable inference from the record is that he did not offer any evidence on the charge of discrimination, but was content to rely simply on his verified written motions, although the facts stated in them were controverted by the State. The trial court, it must be assumed from the record, had nothing before it, when deciding the motions to quash, except the written motions and the written answers thereto. In
Charley Smith
v.
Mississippi,
A different conclusion-in- -this case wоuld mean that, in a criminal prosecution of a'negro for crime,, an allegation of discrimination against "the: African race, becаuse of- their race,. could be established by-simply, proving that no one of-that race was on the grand jury that-returned the’indictment’ or on the
Judgment affirmed.
