Source: https://openjurist.org/225/us/167
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 07:55:58+00:00

Document:
Messrs. Arthur Thad Smith, Harvey H. Pratt, Jeremiah S. Sullivan, and Charles W. Bartlett for plaintiff in error.
Mr. James M. Swift, Attorney General of Massachusetts, and Mr. Walter A. Powers, Assistant Attorney General, for defendant in error.
The plaintiff in error was convicted of the crime of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death, and the judgment was affirmed by the supreme judicial court of the commonwealth of Massachusetts. The case is brought here upon a single question; namely, that the plaintiff in error has been denied due process of law under the 14th Amendment, because he was tried by a jury which included one Willis A. White, concerning whose sanity it is said there existed reasonable doubt.
'We find by a fair preponderance of all the evidence as a fact that the juror Willis A. White was of sufficient mental capacity during the entire trial of Chester S. Jordan until after the verdict was returned, to intelligently consider the evidence, appreciate the arguments of counsel, the rulings of law, the charge of the court, and to arrive at a rational conclusion, and therefore we deny the motion.
The supreme judicial court, after a consideration of the evidence upon which this finding was based, ruled that it could not be said that there was not evidence warranting the conclusion of the trial judges.
We shall assume that both the trial court and the supreme judicial court have sustained the verdict of the jury because they were of opinion that it was not essential that the sanity of the juror under the circumstances of this case should be established by more than a fair preponderance of the evidence. The insistence is that thereby the constitutional guaranty of due process of Iaw, found in the 14th Amendment, has been violated.
Subject to the requirement of due process of law, the states are under no restriction as to their method of procedure in the administration of public justice. That the court had jurisdiction and that there was a full hearing upon the issue made by the suggestion of the insanity of the juror is not questioned. 'Subject to these two fundamental conditions, which seem to be universally prescribed in all systems of law, . . . this court has, up to this time, sustained all state laws, statutory or judicially declared, regulating procedure, evidence, and methods of trial, and held them to be consistent with due process of law.' Twining v. New Jersey, 211 U. S. 78, 111, 53 L. ed. 77, 111, 29 Sup. Ct. Rep. 14.
'The appellant was not deprived of his liberty without due process of law by the manner in which he was tried, so as to violate the provisions of the 14th Amendment to the Federal Constitution. That Amendment, it has been said by this court, 'did not radically change the whole theory of the relations of the state and Federal governments to each other and of both governments to the people.' Re Kemmler, 136 U. S. 436, 448, 34 L. ed. 519, 524, 10 Sup. Ct. Rep. 930; Brown v. New Jersey, 175 U. S. 172, 175, 44 L. ed. 119, 120, 20 Sup. Ct. Rep. 77.
In Louisville & N. R. Co. v. Schmidt, 177 U. S. 230, 236, 44 L. ed. 747, 750, 20 Sup. Ct. Rep. 620, it was said: 'It is no longer open to contention that the due process clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States does not control mere forms of procedure in state courts or regulate practice therein. All its requirements are complied with, provided in the proceedings which are claimed not to have been due process of law the person condemned has had sufficient notice, and adequate opportunity has been afforded him to defend. Iowa C. R. Co. v. Iowa, 160 U. S. 389, 40 L. ed. 467, 16 Sup. Ct. Rep. 344; Wilson v. North Carolina, 169 U. S. 586, 42 L. ed. 865, 18 Sup. Ct. Rep. 435.
In criminal cases due process of law is not denied by a state law which dispenses with a grand jury indictment and permits prosecution upon information, nor by a law which dispenses with the necessity of a jury of twelve, or unanimity in the verdict. Indeed, the requirement of due process does not deprive a state of the power to dispense with jury trial altogether. Hurtado v. California, 110 U. S. 516, 28 L. ed. 232, 4 Sup. Ct. Rep. 111, 292; Maxwell v. Dow, 176 U. S. 581, 44 L. ed. 597, 20 Sup. Ct. Rep. 448, 494. When the essential elements of a court having jurisdiction in which an opportunity for a hearing is afforded are present, the power of a state over its methods of procedure is substantially unrestricted by the due process clause of the Constitution.
The proceeding here in question was in absolute conformity to the Massachusetts law of criminal procedure, and no fundamental principle of justice was violated by a determination of the mental capacity of the juror by a preponderance of the evidence. Neither is there any established rule of the common law inconsistent with the practice adopted in this case. There are many decisions in accord with the Massachusetts view of the law, among them being: State v. Scott, 8 N. C. (1 Hawks) 24; Burik v. Dundee Woolen Co. 66 N. J. L. 420, 49 Atl. 442; State v. Howard, 118 Mo. 127, 24 S. W. 41; Surles v. State, 89 Ga. 167, 15 S. E. 38.
In Hogshead v. State, 6 Humph. 59, the supreme court of Tennessee held that the trial court erred in not granting a new trial when it appeared 'probable' that a juror was insane. But in Tennessee the denial of a new trial is assignable as error and reversible upon writ of error.
Our conclusion is that the plaintiff in error has not been denied due process of law, and the judgment is affirmed.

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