Watha v. State

Citations

• 24 Ohio C.C. Dec. 60

Syllabus

<p>CRIMINAL LAW — HOMICIDE—MOBS.</p> <p>1. Accused Jointly Indicted With Others and Separately Tried Upon> Election of Prosecutor Cannot Challenge Array Summoned as Against all Accused.</p> <p>An accused person, who has been jointly indicted with others for murder in the first degree, cannot complain of the overruling by the court of his challenge to the jury array, where he has been brought to trial upon election of the prosecuting attorney, and a copy of the venire, summoned in the case as against all the accused persons, was served upon him three days before the day set for his trial.</p> <p>2. Dry Partisans on Jury not Prejudicial In Trial of Crime Arising out of Liquor Prosecution.</p> <p>Error will not lie to the overruling of a challenge to the array, ion the ground that names had been placed in the jury wheel of persons who were known to have actively favored the “drys”' In a recent local option election and the crime of which the accused was charged grew out of a contest over the illegal salo of liquor, if it appear that there was an entire, absence of evidence of any kind tending to show that the jury commission, under authority of Gen. Code 11421, placed in the jury wheel names of persons who did not fulfill the qualification of being judicious and discreet.</p> <p>3. Good Character of Accused for Peace and Quietness not Sufficient to Offset Guilt Proven Beyond Reasonable Doubt.</p> <p>An instruction given relative to the reputation of the accused for peace and quietness that good character with a reasonable doubt of accused’s guilt should acquit him but if guilt is proven beyond such doubt good character would not save him, was not prejudicial to his interests.</p> <p>4. Prosecution of Members of Mob for Homicide.</p> <p>In a prosecution of one alleged to have participated in a lynching,, it is not error to charge the jury' that “any words, acts, signs- or motions, done or made for the purpose of encouraging the-commission of the crime” may be considered