State v. Aspara

Citations

• 113 La. 940
• 37 So. 883
• 1904 La. LEXIS 718

Syllabus

<p>CRIMINAL LAW — JURY LIST — INSPECTION — DRAWING JURORS — PARTICIPATION OP SHERIFF — CONSTITUTIONAL LAW — ABSENT WITNESS — EVIDENCE — PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION-REFRESHING MEMORY — HOMICIDE—EVIDENCE — STATEMENT OF ACCUSED — REVIEW ON APPEAL.</p> <p>1. The list of names in the jury wheel required by law to be kept by the jury commissioners “as part of the records of their office” is not intended to be open to public inspection, and a motion or request by counsel in a criminal case-“to be permitted to examine the books and records of the jury commissioners,” without specification of the necessity or purpose of such inspection, but with a view to the examination of the list mentioned, is properly refused by the judge to whom it is addressed.</p> <p>2. Where the names of jurors are drawn from the wheel, but the bearers do not render the service to which they are assigned, such names are properly returned to the wheel, and they should be then relisted, but the failure to relist them is not such an irregularity as of necessity to work injury to the defendant in a criminal prosecution, or to justify the setting aside of a verdict against him.</p> <p>3. The participation of the criminal sheriff, with the jury commissioners, in the drawing of the names of jurors for service in the criminal district court, is a ministerial function, which he may discharge through a deputy.</p> <p>4. The provision of Act No. 170, p. 213, of 1894, requiring the drawing of jurors 12 days before the expiration of the monthly session of the criminal district court, refers to the session as established by the rule of the court, to wit, “from the first Monday of one month to the empanelment of the new jury on the first Monday of the following month,” and such drawing, if made 12 days before the day last mentioned in the rule, is within the law, though the court may adjourn its sittings prior to that day and less than 12 days after such drawing.</p> <p>5. The jury commissioners are not required to-mak