March v. State

Citations

• 44 Tex. 64

Syllabus

<p>1. Constitutional law—Construction.—When a discretion is confided to any one branch of the government, a decision by that department upon such matter cannot be questioned or revised.</p> <p>2. Same—Criminal courts.—Under the constitutional provision that “the legislature may establish criminal courts in the principal cities within the State with such criminal jurisdiction, coextensive with the limits of the county wherein such cities may be situated, and under such regulations as may be prescribed by law,” the legislature had the power to create a criminal court for the city of Tyler, in Smith county, with exclusive jurisdiction over felonies.</p> <p>3. Same.—The citizen has no vested right in any particular court in which to be tried for an offense or mode of procedure in such prosecution.</p> <p>4. Same.—All mere remedies are objects of legislative control, subject in criminal prosecutions that they be equally speedy, efficacious, public, and not more burdensome than those existing at the date of the commission of the alleged offense.</p> <p>5. Jurisdiction of criminal courts extended as well to eases removed by change of venue as those originating in the county over •which such courts had jurisdiction.</p> <p>6. Misconduct of jury—Conversations.—The ground for new trial “ where a juror has conversed with any person in regard to the trial ” cannot be held to exist unless such conversation was calculated to impress the case upon the mind of the juror in a different aspect from that made by the evidence, or calculated to result in harm to the party on trial.</p> <p>7. Same—Use of intoxicating liquors by jurors.—Held, That the introduction of four or five bottles of whisky into the jury-room and their use by the jurors, is such a use of intoxicating liquors as to vitiate a verdict found by such jury.</p> <p>8. Conduct of prosecuting officers criticised.—Where, by the artifice of the prosecuting officers, a defendant has been induced to go to trial on the impressio