State v. Matthews

Citations

• 119 La. 665
• 44 So. 336
• 1907 La. LEXIS 537

Syllabus

<p>1. Grand Jury — Drawing.</p> <p>State v. Mitchell (La.) 44 South. 132, ante, ■p. 374, and State v. Lively (La.) 44 South. 128, ante, p. 363, reaffirmed.</p> <p>•2. Criminal Law — Trial — Argument oe District Attorney.</p> <p>Where counsel for defendant has commented on his custom not to put his clients on the stand in their own behalf, and the district attorney, in reply, has begun some comments on the said statement of counsel for defendant, but is stopped before he has completed his sentence, and the judge warns the jury not to draw .any prejudicial inference against the defendant from the latter’s not having testified in his ■own behalf, and the district attorney adds to the bill of exception the statement that he intended to tell the jury the same thing which the .judge told them, no injury to defendant is shown.</p> <p>[Ed. Note. — For cases in point, see Cent. Dig. vol. 15, Criminal Law, § 3127; vol. 14, Criminal Law, § 1693.]</p> <p>3. Same.</p> <p>In the course of the argument of the district attorney, a question arose as to whether certain testimony he was commenting upon had been given in the presence of the jury or during their retirement, and the court, agreeing- with the district attorney, in that the testimony had been given in the presence of the jury, allowed him to proceed, but, as an extra precaution, instructed the jury that they were the exclusive judges of the law and the facts and would have to disregard the comments of the district attorney on the testimony in question, if they had no remembrance of its having been given. Here, the only possible conclusion is that counsel for defendant was mistaken in saying that the testimony had been given out of the presence of the jury.</p> <p>'[Ed. Note. — For cases in point, see Cent. Dig. vol. 14, Criminal Law, §§ 1670, 1677, 1693.]</p> <p>4. Same —Opinion Evidence — Homicide — Circumstantial Evidence — Appearance op Accused.</p> <p>Near a circus tent at night, a crowd of young men assaulted a negro,