The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-07-15
IN AND ABOUT THE COURTS
MURD ERER's PETITION FOR 4 YEIy
 TRT1L DENIED.
sentence of Death to be Executed--Ac- count Of Administrator on Estate of Mary Maher Objected to- Large Docket in City Court.

The petition for new trial of Fred
 erlck Max Brockhaus, who is under
 sentence to be hanged at the state
 prison on September for the murder
 or David s. R. Lambert in the town of
 wilton in December last, has been de-
 nied by the supreme court of errors, and
 Ine sentence of death will be executed.
 Judge Hamersey writes the opinion of
 'ns court and the other judges concur.
 The petition was brought for a new
 tflal on the ground that one of the Jurors, Philip Haugh of Newtown, be- lore whom Brockhaus was tried, was
 under the age limit, twenty-five years
 al the trial. This fact was not known at the time of the trial. He was ac- cepted as juror by the counsel for the accused after examination and was not challenged for any cause. Brockhaus was convicted March B. 1899, and was sentenced on March '. The petition for a new trial was filed April II, 1899. It stated that Haugh lacked about two months of being twenty-five when the trial took place, After discussing the effect of failure to comply with the statutory provision as to age of jurors, public acts 1895, page 66, the judge says:
 Ownership of certain property, and Limitations of age so long as the juror has legal capacity, are plainly quail fications that have little or any rela- ton to the ability of a juror, and not as to his honesty or impartiality. The want of such qualification in a single juror cannot affect the fairness of a trial or the justice of its result. To prescribe such qualifications for the class of per sons on whom the jury duty is primar- fly imposed may be wise policy; but to set aside verdict fairly reached and justly rendered. because, by accident the prescribed rule has not been exactly fol- lowed, is contrary to common sense and to law" Chief Justice Shaw is quoted, speaking of an age disqualification: ''When no other disqualification exists, and no injustice is done, nothing but positive rule of law would seem to re- quire that a verdict should on that ac- count be set aside.'
 Many decisions are quoted bearing on the general subject of technical disqual- ification of juror, and the opinion con- tinues
 Dul dSlut IGU1Jl tDtSt COHSlutTdllouS bur law is settled that a strictly tech nical qualification of juror fixed by statute is a qualification the want of which is sealed by verdict. The legis- 1ature can say that the waiver of such a qualification shall invalidate a ver- dict but it does not say so by simply fixing the qualification.
 "Our conclusion is: 1. A new trial will not be granted for technical and harmless error. 2. The law regulating new trial is the same In civil and crim- inal cases 3. A disqualification of a juror which goes to his honesty or nn- partiality may be the cause of actual in- justice and is ordinarily ground for new trial, unless it was known to the | petitioner and waived by him during trial A. A statutory qualification which | is strictly technical is healed by yer dict. unless the statute unmistakably | provides the contrary. 5. The act of 1895 | does not make possession of the age qualification of each juror essential to ! the validity of verdict. These posi- tions are fully established by our for mer decisions.
 "We think the view Is substantially supported by the weight of authority in other jurisdictions. It is unnecessary to refer to the numerous decisions. They have been carefully collated and anal- yzed. The verdict stands, not because the defendant is presumed to have waived defect, the existence of which was unknown to him but because the iuror was in fact competent and impar- tiaI, and by law of the land the techni- cal defect. sufficient to reject him a g Juror if known in time, is insufficient to invalidate the verdict when rendered.
 '"The superior court is advised to over- rule the demurrer of the accused to the answer of the state and to render judg- nent denying a new trial.'