“The inevitable effect of [a coercive] instruction would be to suggest to the minority members of the jury that they ought to surrender their own convictions and follow the majority. A vibrant, pulsating, intelligent minority is a part of our American way of life.”
How later courts described this case
- “The inevitable effect of [a coercive] instruction would be to suggest to the minority members of the jury that they ought to surrender their own convictions and follow the majority. A vibrant, pulsating, intelligent minority is a part of our American way of life.”
- “The inevitable effect of the instruction would be to suggest to the minority members of the jury that they ought to surrender their own convictions and follow the majority.”
- "To 'secretly’ confine within the meaning of our statute means confinement against the will of the person confined which deprives him of the friendly assistance of the law to redeem himself from captivity”
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
MR. JUSTICE CASTLES
dissenting.
I dissent. I agree with the majority opinion except as to the last specification of error. I do not agree that the giving of the instruction by the court without objection constitutes reversible error. The instruction was as favorable to the defendant as it was to the State, and, if an acquittal had been had, the defendant would have been happy.