Case ID: okla-crim_5/html/0598-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

CHARLES SCHAFER v. STATE. LEWIS GREEN v. STATE (two cases).
    Nos. A-604, 605, 606.
    Opinion Filed May 9, 1911.
    (115 Pac. 379.)
    JURY — Number of Jurors — Superior Courts. Under section 19, art. 2, of Const, of Okla., a jury for the trial of criminal cases in the superior courts, created by act approved March 6, 1909, (article 4, c. 24, of Snyder’s Sts.), consists of 12 men, and that portion of section 1970, Snyder’s Sts., providing- for the trial of misdemeanors in the superior courts before a jury of six men, is unconstitutional and void.
    (Syllabus by the Court.)
    
      Appeals from Superior Court, Logan County; J. M. Sandlin, Judge.
    
    Charles Schafer and others were convicted of violating the prohibition law, and they appeal.
    Reversed and remanded, with directions.
    
      F. H. McGuire, for plaintiffs in error.
    
      Smith C. Matson, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
   PER CURIAM.

The plaintiffs in error in each of the above-entitled causes were informed against, tried, and convicted in the superior court of Logan county for violations, of the prohibition law.

• The trial in each case was had before a jury composed of only six jurors, and the question presented on each appeal is whether a defendant, over his objection, can be lawfully placed upon trial in a superior court for a misdemeanor before a jury of six men. The record shows that in each case, an objection was interposed by defendants and the demand made for trial before a jury of twelve men.

This question has heretofore been passed upon by this court in the case of Tillie Hill v. State, 3 Okla. Cr. 686, 109 Pac. 291, wherein it was held that:

“Under the Constitution twelve men constitute a jury in the superior courts in all cases. In civil cases and misdemeanors it requires the concurrence of at least nine jurors to render a verdict, and in felony cases the concurrence of the full twelve.”

The court therefore erred in overruling the demand of plaintiffs in error for a jury of twelve men.

For this reason the judgments pronounced and entered in the above-entitled causes are hereby reversed, and said causes remanded to the superior court of Logan county with direction to grant new trials.