Canter v. State
Canter v. State
Opinion of the Court
The journal entry of the court of common pleas, which was admitted in evidence over the objection of defendant below, is as follows: “The defendant coming into open court with his . counsel, E. C. Powell, and being arraigned upon • the indictment herein, waived the reading thereof, and for plea thereto, saith he is not guilty as charged in said indictment. Thereupon the defendant ten
It is apparent from the record that this entry did not recite all that occurred at the time the tender was made. It appears from the testimony.of the prosecuting attorney, called as a witness on behalf of the defendant, that the tender of a plea of guilty of assault and battery was accompanied by a statement of counsel that the tender was made for the purpose of avoiding costs in the event of a conviction of assault and battery.
After a motion for a new trial was overruled and sentence was pronounced, the trial court ordered the clerk to amend the entry to conform to the facts as they transpired in court, and the entry as amended recites that the tender of the plea was not made for the purpose of admitting defendant’s guilt of any offense under the indictment, but for the purpose of avoiding the payment of costs in the event of his conviction of assault and battery.
We are not advised of the purpose for which an amendment was sought after conviction, or whether additional facts were brought to the attention of the court upon the hearing of the application for an amendment. Had the entry appeared upon the journal in its amended form, at the time of the trial, it is obvious that the same would have served no purpose of the state and the same would not have been offered in evidence.
The entry was received in evidence in its original form and the court in its charge used this language: “You are charged as a matter of law that the only
The court had already defined to the jury the offense of assault and battery. We quote from, the charge: “If you should find, after a careful consideration of all of the evidence in this case, that the state has established the fact of the shooting, but has failed to establish that it was done maliciously or has failed to establish that it was with intent to kill or wound, and yet you find that it was unlawful then you can consider the lesser offenses included in this charge. Those are assault and battery, and assault. * * * If there was an assault and battery here, it must be the result of the striking of Jackson by the ball fired from the gun by this defendant.” The tender of a plea of guilty to that offense under the instruction of the court first above quoted amounted to an admission, evidenced by an entry on the journal of the court, that the accused had done the shooting unlawfully. To convict him of shooting with intent to wound all that remained for the state to prove was malice and intent.
Assuming that this tender amounted to an admission on the part of the accused that ■ he was guilty of an unlawful shooting, was the jóurnál entry competent evidence to establish that fact ?
Section 13632, General Code, provides that upon arraignment the accused shall plead guilty of not guilty. In this case defendant pleaded not guilty.to
,. True, the court instructed the jury that if it appeared that there was no intent or purpose on the part of the defendant to admit his guilt of any offense when he tendered his plea of guilty, then such tender could not be taken as an admission of guilt of any offense charged in the indictment. This may have weakened to some extent the force of the charge in reference to the language used in the
The defendant by his plea of not guilty to thé indictment denied the shooting. This was one of the essential elements of the crime of which he was convicted. There was little if any direct evidence tending to show that defendant did the shooting. His claim was that it was done accidentally. In admitting this incompetent evidence to prove the unlawful shooting the substantial rights of thé defendant were prejudiced.
The court of appeals, which considered and weighed the evidence, stated that the serious question confronting it was whether or not the judgment should be reversed upon the ground that it was not sustained by the weight of the evidence. On that question the court was not in full accord. It is most likely, we think, that this incompetent evidence contributed to the result at which the jury arrived.
As to the other errors assigned by plaintiff in error we are of the opinion that the court of appeals was correct in its conclusions.
For prejudicial error in the admission of the journal entry in evidence the court, of appeals should have reversed the judgment of the court of common pleas and remanded the cause for a new trial.
Judgment reversed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.