State v. Carey

Citations

• 15 Wash. 549
• 46 P. 1050
• 1896 Wash. LEXIS 247

Syllabus

<p>JURORS —BIAS —HOMICIDE — INFORMATION — INSTRUCTIONS — SUFFICIENCY OF EVIDENCE.</p> <p>Error in overruling a challenge for actual bias interposed to a juror is without prejudice, when the juror is subsequently excluded upon the peremptory challenge of the adverse party.</p> <p>Where the examination of a juror shows that no fixed or definite opinion exists in his mind relative to the merits of a criminal prosecution, but only a vague or merely floating impression based upon a newspaper report of the case, or heard at about the time of the commission of the supposed crime, the juror is not subject to a challenge on the ground of bias.</p> <p>Where the information in a prosecution for murder charges that the homicide was committed by means of striking and beating the deceased with “a heavy blunt instrument; a more particular description of which is to the prosecuting attorney unknown,” the introduction in evidence of a broken oar, which had been found in the possession of the defendant, is not objectionable on the ground of variance, when it is not established on the trial what instrument it was that caused the death, other than that it was a heavy blunt one, and it is not shown that a description of the instrument was known by the prosecuting attorney at the time of filing the information.</p> <p>The refusal of the court to instruct the jury as requested, upon defendant’s theory of the case that death had been occasioned by a severe fall and not by the means charged in the information, is not erroneous, when the subject .matter is covered by the general charge that, if it is possible to account for the death of the deceased upon any reasonable hypothesis other than that of the guilt of the defendant, it is their duty to do so and find the defendant not guilty, and by the further charge that, if the jury entertain any reasonable doubt upon any single fact or element necessary to constitute the offense, it is their duty to acquit him.</p> <p>An instruction by the cour