State v. Royse

Citations

• 24 Wash. 440
• 64 P. 742
• 1901 Wash. LEXIS 554

Syllabus

<p>CRIMINAL LAW-EXAMINATION OE JURORS-IMPRESSION OE GUILT.</p> <p>Where a juror states on his voir dire that he has no opinion as to the guilt or innocence of accused, but that he has some slight impression on the subject from having heard the case discussed by persons who did not claim to know the facts, ana that such impression would readily yield to testimony, he is not disqualified on the ground of actual bias.</p> <p>SAME- — DIFFERENCE BETWEEN OPINION AND IMPRESSION.</p> <p>When an attorney in examining a juror as to his qualifications states that there is no difference between having an opinion and an impression as to defendant’s guilt or innocence, it is a misstatement of the law, and it is not error for the court to interfere with the examination for the purpose of correcting the statement and instructing the juror to the contrary.</p> <p>SAJ^E-PREJUDICE-DRUNKENNESS.</p> <p>In examining a juror as to whether or not he was prejudiced against the defenses of drunkenness and insanity, a question to the juror as to which side he would find on, if the evidence as to drunkenness should be equally balanced, was properly excluded, on the ground that it presented a question of law, upon which it was the court’s duty to instruct the jury.</p> <p>SAME-HARMLESS ERROR.</p> <p>The refusal of the court to permit counsel to ask a juror whether he would look upon the defense of intoxication with any degree .of disfavor, if error at all, was cured by permitting counsel subsequently to propound the question, “should the defense consist in part of emotional or hereditary insanity, aggravated, inflamed, and rendered acute by the excessive use of intoxicating liquors, would you regard that kind of defense with any disfavor or prejudice”?</p> <p>SAME —■ HEREDITARY INSANITY.</p> <p>Although a juror, when asked if he had any prejudice against the defense of drunkenness or insanity, answered that to a certain extent he had, yet his exclusion on the ground of prejudice was properly de