Dorman v. State

Citations

• 48 Fla. 18

Syllabus

<p>1. Where two witnesses had been subpoenaed by a defendant in a criminal case to a term of the court immediately preceding that of the trial, and two others to the latter term, all of whom were of nomadic habits and were not found by the officers, and all of whose alleged testimony would be merely cumulative to other testimony offered by the defendant, there was no abuse of discretion by the trial judge in refusing to continue the case on account of the absence of such witnesses.</p> <p>2. Where it appears that after a criminal trial was begun and several jurors were, prior to the adjournment for the day, accepted and sworn on the jury, and that on the convening of the court next day the judge discharged one of such jurors because of his kinship to some of the parties involved, and the record then shows that the panel of the jury was completed and the jury sworn, the act of the judge in discharging the juror was not an abuse of judicial discretion.</p> <p>3. Where a defendant in a criminal case offers to read in evidence the testimony of one of his witnesses regularly taken at a preliminary hearing before a county judge, on the ground that such witness could not after diligent search be found by the sheriff of the county where the trial 'was had, nor by the sheriff of another county, and where it does not appear that the witness was dead, or out of the jurisdiction of the court, and where the court had refused to continue the case, on account of the absence of such witness because due diligence had not been shown to procure his attendance, the trial judge committed no error in refusing to allow such testimony, taken at the preliminary hearing before the county judge, to be read in evidence at the trial.</p> <p>4. The evidence supported the verdict.</p>