State v. Garrington

Citations

• 11 S.D. 178
• 76 N.W. 326
• 1898 S.D. LEXIS 97

Syllabus

<p>1. Comp Laws, § 6449, provides that persons convicted of murder shall suffer death or impi’isonment for life, at the discretion of the jury. Section 7359 provides that, if the punishment be death, a challenge for implied bias may be made to jurors who entertain conscientious opinions against capital punishment. At the time of the enactment of section 7359 the death penalty was the only punishment for murder. Held, that while a juror ma.y no longer be challenged for holding opinions against capital punishment, yet he may be a-ked as to the holding of such opinions as a basis for a peremptory challenge,</p> <p>2. Deceased was seen with a small tobacco sack, containing money, some weeks before his death. After the discovery of the crime a similar sack was found in a building occupied by defendant, where deceased was killed. Held, that it was not error to receive the sack in evidence, where the building was carefully guarded after the discovery of the crime, as the question of the identity of the sack was for the jury.</p> <p>3. Where the crime was discovered about 1 o’clock in the morning, it was proper to show that deceased, at about 5 o’clock on the preceding afternoon, in a store two blocks from the scene of the crime, stated that he was going to defendant’s place, where his body was aftewards found, and was afterwards seen going in that direction.</p> <p>4. The act of defendant in exhibiting money between the time deceased was last seen alive and the discovery of his body at the house of defendant may be shown by the state.</p> <p>5 A test tube, containing pieces of cloth cut from the pocket of overalls worn by deceased at the time of his death, was examined by an expert, who testified that they contained blood stains, but was unable to say that it was human blood. The pieces were cut several weeks after the commission of the crime. The purpose of the evidence was to show that the person who did the killing had rifled deceased pockets with bloody hands. Held, th