Commonwealth v. Mosier

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Commonwealth v. Mosier, 135 Pa. 221 (Pa. 1890)
19 A. 943; 1890 Pa. LEXIS 1176
Axson, Clank, Gbeen, Mitchell, Paxson, Williams

Commonwealth v. Mosier

Opinion of the Court

Opinion,

Mr. Chief Justice Paxson:

The second assignment alleges that the court below erred in refusing to quash the indictment because the wife of the defendant was examined before the grand jury as a witness, *235and testified against her husband contrary to law. It nowhere appears that she testified against her husband contrary to law. The defendant was indicted for the crime of adultery. The act of May 23, 1887, P. L. 158, expressly authorizes the wife to testify to the marriage, upon a charge of adultery against the husband. We have nothing here but the indorsement of the wife’s name as a witness on the back of the bill of indictment; and, in the absence of any information as to what she testified to, we must presume she was examined only as to matters to which she was a competent witness.

The objection to the exclusion of the juror, J. D. Larkins, is without merit. The juror was challenged for favor by the commonwealth. It appeared that he had conversed with the defendant, and had exchanged cigars and drinks with him. We think this was sufficient. The commonwealth was not bound to accept a juror who had been on such easy terms with the defendant. Moreover, the latter was not injured because of the exclusion of this juror. He had no right to have this particular juror sworn in the cause. He had a right to be tried by an impartial jury; nothing more. The case is widely different from that of forcing a partial juror into the box against the objection of the defendant. In such case, lie is forced to challenge peremptorily to get rid of him.

The third assignment alleges error in permitting the commonwealth to ask the defendant, upon cross-examination, when on the stand as a witness in his own behalf, why he had pleaded guilty of the adultery in Ohio with Mrs. Clayton. The defendant was charged with adultery with this Mrs. Clayton, and in his examination in chief had stated that he had not committed adultery with her on the date laid in the indictment, nor at any other time. The question upon cross-examination was asked, not to show a conviction in Ohio of the offence, but to contradict the witness by showing that he had pleaded guilty in that state to a charge of adultery with Mrs. Clayton. This went directly to contradict and discredit the witness, and we think it was competent. It was his own declaration or admission of the fact, and was not rendered incompetent because solemnly made in the course of a judicial proceeding.

The remaining assignments refer to the charge of the court. In this we see no error. If it bore somewhat hardly upon the *236defendant, it is because the facts were against him. It was not error to say to the jury that the charge of adultery may be inferred from the fact of a man and a woman, not husband and wife, occupying the same bed and room, undressed, in the night time. The jury had the full benefit of defendant’s story about having been alarmed by supposed burglars, and seeking Mrs. Clayton’s room, en déshabillé, to get his revolver. They did not believe a word of it, however, and we do not wonder at it. There appear to have been no burglars about the house that night.

The judgment is affirmed; and it is now ordered that Henry A. Mosier, the defendant, surrender himself forthwith to the custody of the keeper of the county jail at Smethport, to serve out the un expired time of the sentence imposed upon him by the court below.

Reference

Full Case Name
COMMONWEALTH v. HENRY A. MOSIER
Cited By
17 cases
Status
Published
Syllabus
1. An indictment for adultery should not be quashed merely because it appears that the defendant’s wife was examined before the grand jury as a witness. In the absence of anything to show what she testified to, the presumption is that she was examined only to prove the fact of marriage, as to which she was competent under § 2 (b), act of May 28, 1887, P. L. 158. 2. The fact that a person, called as a juror in a criminal case, had conversed with the defendant during the sitting of the court, though not about the ease, and had exchanged drinks and cigars with him, is sufficient cause of challenge proper affectum; at all events, the juror’s exclusion does not injure the defendant, who has no right to have any particular juror sworn. 3. Where a defendant, indicted for adultery with C., upon his examination in chief has denied the commission of adultery with C., either on the date laid in the indictment or at any other time, he may be asked, upon cross-examination, whether he did not plead guilty in Ohio to a charge of adultery with 0., and why he did so. 4. It is not error to instruct the jury, upon the trial of an indictment for adultery, that the law would fully warrant their inferring the commission of the crime charged, from the fact that a man and a woman, not husband and wife, were occupying the same room, undressed, in the night time.