Opinion

McIntyre v. State

  • 231 Ala. 141
  • 163 So. 662
  • 1935 Ala. LEXIS 361
Court
Supreme Court of Alabama
Filed
Oct 17, 1935
Status
Published
Author
Brown
On the bench
Thomas, Anderson, Gardner, Foster, Bouldin, Brown, Knight
Cited by
2 cases

The opinion

BROWN, Justice

(dissenting).

It clearly appears from the statement of facts in the opinion of the Court of Appeals that the inspection of the particles of broken glass by the jurors in groups of three took place in open court in the presence of the defendant and all the other jurors; that the jurors in groups of three were allowed, as a matter of convenience, to step out of the jury box and inspect the particles of glass, which had been identified by the witness Stephens as glass picked up at the scene of the alleged homicide and glass taken from the defendant’s car after the homicide where it was parked in the garage, and the witness Stephens, during the inspection, was further questioned in respect thereto. These jurors were not separated except in the respect above indicated, and it does not appear that the solicitor did anything except call attention to the fact that certain pieces of glass taken from the scene of the homicide exactly fitted into the pieces taken from the headlight of the defendant’s car. If the defendant was prejudiced by this course of procedure, it was simply because it tended to develop the truth and connect the defendant with the homicide.

In my judgment, the court in thus allowing the inspection of this evidence was exercising a sound discretion, and the Court of Appeals erred in reversing the judgment of conviction.

I therefore respectfully dissent.

BOULDIN and KNIGHT, JJ., concur.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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