Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/150/118.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 13:37:13+00:00

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This was a writ of error upon the conviction of the plaintiff in error for the murder of an unknown man in the Indian Territory on the 13th day of February, 1889. [150 U.S. 118, 119] The evidence on the part of the prosecution tended to show that, several days before the murder, two men stopped together at Vian, and obtained a contract to make rails for one Waters, and lived in a house about one mile from Waters' residence. They came from Winslow, in the state of Arkansas, in an old vehicle drawn by two horses, and were on their way to Oklahoma, staying at Vian for a few days for the purpose of earning provisions for themselves and horses. One of these men was accompanied by his wife and two small children. After remaining for several days, they left the neighborhood, and were next seen camping near the scene of the murder, on the evening of February 13th. Their personalities were remembered, although their names were forgotten, except that a boy remembered the name of one of them to have been John Graves. The morning after they were seen together in camp, one of the men was seen putting the horses to the vehicle, in which were the woman and a child, but the witness saw but one man and one child. About the 1st of May following, the remains of a dead man were found near the place where the witness claimed to have seen the people camped. The body was decayed, but was identified mainly by peculiarities of the teeth and clothing. He was the man who had claimed to own the horses and wagon. The witnesses for the prosecution recognized the defendant, Graves, as the other man, though to most of them his name had been unknown. Defendant's wife was admitted to have been in town at the time of the trial, but did not appear in the court room. She was seen by one of the witnesses of the prosecution outside of the court room, and was believed by the witness to have been the woman who had been with the party.
The defense was an alibi, and was supported by several witnesses, who swore that in the months of January, February, and March of that year defendant was in Washington county, Ark., a distance of 100 miles or more from the place where the remains of the dead man were found. Upon conviction of murder, defendant sued out this writ of error, making 15 assignments of error.
Mr. Justice Brewer, dissenting. [150 U.S. 118, 120] A. H. Garland, for plaintiff in error.
The first assignment of error is to the action of the court in permitting 'the district attorney, in his closing argument to the jury, over the objections of the defendant, to comment upon the absence of the defendant's wife from the presence of the court, and to state, among other things, to the jury, that the defendant's wife ought to have been sitting by the side of her husband during the trial, so that witnesses for the government could see her, and identify her as the woman who was said to have been with the defendant in the Indian country before the unknown man's remains or bones were found; and other like arguments, statements, and declarations.' While we do not wish to be understood as holding that comments by the district attorney upon the facts not in evidence, or statements made, having no connection with the case, or exaggerated expressions, such as counsel, in the heat of trial, are prone to indulge in, will necessarily vitiate a verdict, if not objected to, yet when the attention of the court is called to them specially, it is its duty to interfere, and put a stop to them, and objection is made, if they are likely to be prejudicial to the accused. Wilson v. U. S., 149 U.S. 60 , 13 Sup. Ct. Rep. 765; Hall v. U. S., 150 U. S. --, 14 Sup. Ct. Rep. 22.
Had the wife been a competent witness, the comments upon her absence would have been less objectionable. It was said by Chief Justice Shaw in the case of Com. v. Webster, 5 Cush. 295, 316: 'But when pretty stringent proof of circumstances is produced, tending to support the charge, and it is apparent that the accused is so situated that he can offer evidence of all the facts and circumstances, as they existed, and show, if such was the truth, that the suspicious circum- [150 U.S. 118, 121] stances can be accounted for consistently with his innocence, and he fails to offer such proof, the natural conclusion is that the proof, if produced, instead of rebutting, would tend to support, the charge.' The rule, even in criminal cases, is that, if a party has it peculiarly within his power to produce witnesses whose testimony would elucidate the transaction, the fact that he does not do it creates the presumption that the testimony, if produced, would be unfavorable. 1 Starkie, Ev. 54; People v. Hovey, 92 N. Y. 554, 559; Mercer v. State, 17 Tex. App. 452, 467; Gordon v. People, 33 N. Y. 508.
But this presumption does not apply to every fact in the case which it may be in the power of the defendant to prove. He is not bound to anticipate every fact which the government may wish to show in the course of the trial, and produce evidence of that fact. In this case the wife was not a competent witness, either in behalf of or against her husband. If he had brought her into court, neither he nor the government could have put her upon the stand; and he was under no obligation to produce her for the purpose assigned by the district attorney,-that the witnesses for the government could see her, and identify her as the woman who was said to have been with the defendant in the Indian country before the unknown man's remains or bones were found. Permission to make this comment was equivalent to saying to the jury that it was a circumstance against the accused that he had failed to produce his wife for identification, when, knowing that she could not be a witness, he was under no obligation to do so. The jury would be likely to draw the inference that she was prevented from testifying for her husband because her evidence might be damaging. It was, in fact, as if the court had charged the jury that it was a circumstance against him that he had failed to produce his wife in court.
The view we have taken of this assignment of errors renders it unnecessary to consider the others.
In this case the wife could not be a witness for her husband, it is true; and yet her presence in the court room-a presence ordinarily to be expected-would, most certainly and obviously, have aided materially in the identification of the defendant. She was in the city, as the testimony showed, and her absence from the court room, unexplained, certainly suggested a motive, and that motive one which case suspicion upon the defendant. I think the rule that should be laid down is that, in the absence of express prohibition, every fact which, in no illegal manner, comes to the knowledge of the jury during the progress of a trial, and which may influence their minds, is a subject of comment by counsel in their argument. The fact that defendant's wife was in the city was developed by the testimony; that she was not present in the court room was an obvious fact; the witnesses who saw the defendant at or near Vian, as they testified, saw his wife there with him; and it would most certainly add to the force of their testimony if they could have said, 'We there saw, not merely this defendant on trial, but this woman sitting by his side.' Every man would feel surer of an identification which included two [150 U.S. 118, 126] persons, than if limited to but one. Some stress seems to be laid, in the opinion of the court, upon the fact that the defendant's wife was not a competent witness, and that this distinguishes the case from that cited from 14 Gray, and others in which the books abound. While it is true that she could not be sworn, and called upon to give testimony, yet she was herself testimony, and material testimony. Take this illustration: Suppose one of the witnesses for the government in this case had testified that while with the defendant, at Vian, he had seen in his possession a knife of a peculiar make, had there taken it, and made a mark upon it, and the government had proved by some other witness that he had seen in the possession of the defendant, on the very morning of the trial, a knife of substantially the same make, and no knife was produced by the defendant. Would not the omission to produce that knife be a significant fact, and one which the prosecuting attorney was at liberty to comment upon? It produced, and bearing the mark described by the first witness, it would tend very strongly to support the identification. Just so if this wife of defendant had been in the court room, and these various witnesses for the prosecution had testified that she was the same woman they had seen at Vian. Can there be any doubt that the identification would have been more certain? So, because, in the natural progress of the trial, without any misconduct on the part of the prosecution, this fact came to the notice of the jury, and was a fact which would naturally tend to affect the conclusions of men, it was a fact in respect to which the prosecuting officer was at liberty to comment, and suggest to the jury his own conclusions therefrom.
Again, the defense in this case was an alibi. The witnesses for the defense who testified to seeing the defendant in Washington county, Ark., at or about the time of the alleged murder, testified that his wife was with him there; that they had seen her in the city of Ft. Smith during the trial; and that she was the same woman with him theretofore in Washington county. It also appeared from the testimony of one witness that she had been in the hall of the courthouse, [150 U.S. 118, 127] and that, though in the city, she had not been around with the other witnesses.
Now, commenting upon the testimony, the counsel for the defense could argue to the jury that they had a double identification,-that of the defendant and that of his wife,-while the government had only one identification,-that of the defendant. Was it not a legitimate argument for the district attorney to make, in response to this, that if the wife had been in the court room, by the side of her husband, during the trial, as ordinarily she would be expected to be, the government might have had a double identification equally with the defendant? And as the testimony further showed that she was in the city, that she came up into the hall of the courthouse, and still was not around with the other witnesses for the defendant, so that the government witnesses might have had a chance to meet and see her, was it not also a legitimate argument, and was not the district attorney justified in making it, that there was probably a reason for her conduct, and that reason the danger of a double identification? The conclusion, it is true, cannot be positively affirmed to be correct; but surely a case ought not be reversed because the counsel for the government draws erroneous conclusions from the facts developed in the trial. If such a rule were laid down, how many verdicts could stand?
It must be borne in mind that there was nothing denunciatory, harsh, or abusive in the language of the district attorney. He simply commented upon the fact, obvious to the jury, that the wife of the defendant was not in the court room, although shown by the defendant's witnesses to be in the city, and drew his conclusions from such facts. The comment was one which would naturally occur to every man aware of the facts, whether on or off the jury. Can it be that the defendant was prejudiced by that? Ought the deliberate judgment of 12 men as to the defendant's guilt, approved as it was by the judge who presided, to be set aside for an error, it error it be, so frivolous as that?

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