Fugate v. State

Mississippi Supreme Court
Fugate v. State, 85 Miss. 86 (Miss. 1904)
Whitfield

Fugate v. State

Opinion of the Court

Whitfield, C. J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

There was no error in refusing to allow defendant to examine the juror Emmett Livingston on his voir dire as to his conception of a reasonable doubt. Jurors on their voir dire examination are not to be led into the tangled mazes of this metaphysical field.

Nor was there any error in refusing to allow the juror Roan to answer the question, on his voir dire examination, “whether he would believe witness Roscoe Hoard on oath.” .The court permitted the testimony of Roscoe Hoard to go to the jury over the objection of the defendant, but the next day, upon the request of the state, excluded the testimony. Counsel for state took this action so as not to have possible error in the record. Their reason seems to have been that, whilst Roscoe Hoard cor*93roboratecl in part tlie witness Jim Moreland as to the conversation had with defendant (which the reporter will set out in full), he did not corroborate him throughout; and, further, because they feared that it was barely possible that Hoard’s testimony might fail of showing that Nan Cunningham, the deceased, was the specific person referred to' by defendant. The record shows beyond dispute that Nan Cunningham was the specific person referred to, and it was not necessary to the competency of Hoard’s testimony otherwise that he should throughout corroborate Moreland. The latter fact might have affected the credibility of the one or the other with the jury, but did not render the testimony incompetent. The only mistake made by the court below was in acceding to the request of the counsel for the state and excluding the testimony; but this was an error in favor of the defendant. It is obvious that, so far from prejudicing his case, the action of both the counsel for the state and the exceptionally able and accomplished trial judge was the result of extreme tenderness towards the defendant, and praiseworthy conscientiousness in seeking to secure to him every legal right.

The addition of the words “and the jury is in doubt which is the correct theory” to the twenty-sixth instruction asked by the defendant was not error. There being doubt as to the correct theory is submitted as the correct test by counsel for appellant in their twenty-fifth instruction, in which the jury are told that, if there “was any fact in the case susceptible of two reasonable interpretations, one favorable and the other unfavorable to the defendant, and the jury were in doubt which was the correct interpretation,” etc.

It was erroneous in the court to change the first part of the twenty-eighth instruction asked for the defendant by striking-out the word “evidence” and substituting therefor the word “presumption.” But it was harmless error, for the latter clause of the instruction cures it. The jury could not have misunderstood the idea of the instruction as propounded originally.

*94None of the other errors assigned on the trial of the merits is tenable. We have carefully considered the case in all its phases, and find no error of any kind except the one just alluded to in respect to the twenty-eighth charge, and this was cured as stated.

Affirmed.

Reference

Full Case Name
Joseph Watt Fugate v. State of Mississippi
Cited By
6 cases
Status
Published
Syllabus
1. Criminal Law. Murder. Jurors. Voir dire examination. Reasonable doubt. A man’s conception of a reasonable doubt is not a proper subject of inguiry when he is presented as a juror in a criminal case and examined on his voir dire. 2. Same. Estimate of witness. Whether a proffered juror would believe a certain witness for the state on oath is not a proper subject of inguiry upon his voir dire examination in a criminal case. 3. Same. Evidence. Witnesses differing. Where testimony touching a certain conversation with the accused, unquestionably relating to the deceased, is otherwise competent, it is not rendered inadmissible in evidence because the witnesses fail to corroborate each other in some particulars concerning it. 4. Same. Theories. Duty of jury. The rule that where there are two reasonable theories as to the facts of a killing, one favorable and the other unfavorable to the accused, the jury are bound to accept the favorable one, only applies in case the jury be in doubt as to the correctness of the unfavorable one. 5. Same. Instructions. Modifications. Harmless error. Where the court instructed the jury in a murder case to the effect that the accused was presumed to be innocent, and that the presumption was an instrument of proof whereby his innocence was established until sufficient evidence should be introduced to overcome it, the erroneous modification of another part of the instruction, charging that the presumption of innocence is not merely a presumption of law, but is evidence in behalf of the accused, by striking out the word “evidence” and inserting “presumption,” does not constitute reversible error.