West v. State

Citations

• 42 Fla. 244

Syllabus

<p>Criminal Law — Sickness of Juror After Being Sworn — Challenges —-Mistrial—Commission of Another Crime, When Admissable in Evidence.</p> <p>1. In a trial for felony, if a juror, the judge, or the prisoner becomes incapacitated by illness or death, after the jwry is empanelled and sworn in chief, the proper course to pursue is to declare a mistrial and begin do novo. In the case of a juror falling ill after the jury has been empanelled and sworn in chief, there is no impropriety in utilizing the remaining eleven on a new trial, but they should be retendered to the prisoner and re-sworn, and the defendant has the right to peremptorily challenge any of them on such retender, and has the right to his full complement of peremptory challenges just as though there had been no prior empanelment of a jury in his cause.</p> <p>2. Evidence of the commission of another crime by the defendant contemporaneously with the one for which he is on trial is admissible when it tends to prove the animus of the defendant in the commission of the crime for which he is on trial.</p>