Simmons v. State

Citations

• 109 Miss. 605
• 68 So. 913

Syllabus

<p>1. Cbiminai, Law. Review. Province of jury. Presumptions. Drawing of jurors. Impaneling. Harmless error. Failure to observe law. Indictment and information. Motion to strike. Grounds.</p> <p>The jury are the sole judges of the credibility of the witnesses and the weight of the testimony of any witness or other .probative fact in the case, and unless there is shown some immaterial error of law in the submission or presentation of the case to jury, the case must and should be affirmed.</p> <p>2. Cbiminai, Law. Presumptions. Drawing of errors.</p> <p>The law indulges the presumption that the board of supervisors in drawing jurors, performed their lawful duty, until the contrary is shown, and the court cannot take judicial notice of the fact that the hoard declined to use for jury service qualified electors in beats other than one beat, who were of “good intelligence sound judgment at fair character,” and the mere fact that an order for the drawing of jurors' did not show that they were drawn from more than one district will not raise a presumption that the jurors were not drawn from other districts.</p> <p>3. Same.</p> <p>Even where the list of jurors was made up altogether from residents of one beat, a verdict and judgment of conviction will be upheld, in the absence of a showing on the part of the defendant that he has been materially hurt, damaged, or prejudicial in any of his rights or that any member of the panel accepted was other than a fair and impartial juror, since Code 1906, section 2718, declares that the jury laws are simply directory.</p> <p>4. Indictment and Information. Motions to strike. Grounds.</p> <p>Where in a prosecution for rape upon a girl under the age of consent the indictment alleged the use of force by accused, such averments may be treated as surplusage, and it was not error for the court to refuse to strike them from the indictment.</p>