Litford v. State

Mississippi Supreme Court
Litford v. State, 93 Miss. 419 (Miss. 1908)
46 So. 246
Calhoon

Litford v. State

Opinion of the Court

Calhoon, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

In this case a special venire was demanded by the accused,, and the same was drawn and the return made by tire sheriff.. *421On the return day of the special venire he moved to quash it, and the court overruled the motion. On the motion testimony was introduced which showed conclusively that Code 1906, § 2688, was ignored by the board of supervisors. That section requires that the board should take the names of the jurors “as nearly as they conveniently can from the supervisors’ districts in proportion to the number of qualified persons in each, excluding all who have served on the regular panel within two years, if there be not a deficiency of jurors.”

It is perfectly apparent from the proof that no attention was paid to this requirement. In one of the beats (No. 4), the registration books show the names of only twenty-six persons registered, while from it the board selected twenty-nine persons, of which number twelve had never been registered, and ten of them who had been registered were wholly omitted. In beat No. 5, there were fifty-eight registered electors; whereas, the board put sixty-three persons in tire jury box from that beat.

The observance of this section 2688 is at the Very basis of all jury trials, and, under the ruling in Purvis v. State, 71 Miss. 706, 14 South. 268, the judgment appealed from in this case necessarily must be reversed and remanded.

Reference

Full Case Name
Allen Litford v. State of Mississippi
Cited By
2 cases
Status
Published
Syllabus
Juries. Board of supervisors. Code 1906, § 2718. Jury laws directory. Code 1906, § 2688. List of persons to serve. Venire. Quashing. While, under Code 1906, § 2718, so providing, all statutory provisions on the subject of juries are directory merely, the selection of persons to serve as jurors by the board of supervisors will be unwarranted, and a venire drawn therefrom should be quashed if the board make the selection according to its will, wholly ignoring Code 1906, § 2688, providing that it shall annually at its first meeting in each year select and make a list of electors to serve as jurors in the circuit court for the ensuing year, taking them, as near as conveniently can be done, from the several supervisor’s districts of the county in proportion to the number of qualified persons in each, excluding those who have served as regular jurors within two years next before the selection.