Source: http://www.chanrobles.com/usa/us_supremecourt/114/477/case.php
Timestamp: 2017-12-16 22:44:20
Document Index: 386574979

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 5', '§ 4', '§ 5', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 5']

CLAWSON V. UNITED STATES, 114 U. S. 477 (1885) - US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE
US Supreme Court Decisions On-Line> Volume 114 > CLAWSON V. UNITED STATES, 114 U. S. 477 (1885)
Subscribe to Cases that cite 114 U. S. 477
Each of the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
It is contended that that section did not apply because the defendant had not been held to answer and there was no prosecution against him. The language of the section is that "In any prosecution for bigamy, polygamy, or unlawful cohabitation, under any statute of the United States, it shall be sufficient cause of challenge," etc. It is urged that the proceedings to impanel a grand jury were not part of a prosecution, and that the prosecution could not begin until after the grand jury had been completely impaneled. But we think this is too narrow a view of the statute. The whole scope of § 5 is to prescribe what shall be sufficient causes of challenge to be made by the United States in a case of bigamy, polygamy, or unlawful cohabitation. It is the United States alone who would desire to exclude from the grand jury persons answering the descriptions named in the section. It is not contemplated that a person to be prosecuted for the offenses specified would challenge for any of the causes set forth. The mischief to be chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
It is also urged that section 5 does not apply to grand jurors. The language is, "any person drawn or summoned as a juryman or talesman" -- "any person appearing or offered as a juror or talesman." In view of the fact that, by § 4 of the Act of June 23, 1874, both grand jurors and petit jurors are to be drawn from the box containing the two hundred names and are to be summoned under venires and are to constitute the regular grand and petit juries for the term, and of the further fact that the persons to be challenged and excluded are persons not likely to find indictments for the offenses named in § 5, we cannot doubt that the words "juryman" and "juror" include a grand juror as well as a petit juror. There is as much ground for holding that it includes the former alone as the latter alone if it is to include but one. It must include one at least, and we think it includes both. The purpose and reason of the section include the grand juror, and there is nothing in the language repugnant to such view. The use of the words "drawn or summoned as a juryman or talesman," and of the words "appearing or offered as a juror or talesman," does not have the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
After the motion to set aside the indictment was overruled, the trial was had on a plea of not guilty. In impaneling a jury, it appeared that the list of jurors drawn and summoned for the term, and also the general jury list for the year, consisting of two hundred names selected and returned for a general jury list, were exhausted, and that no names remained in the general jury box. Thereupon the prosecuting attorney, on the ground that the jury list provided for by statute was exhausted, moved the court that an open venire issue to summon such jurors as were necessary. The defendant objected to the issuing of an open venire or any venire for jurors on the ground that there was no law authorizing it. The court overruled the objection, and the defendant excepted. By an order of the court, a venire was then issued to the United States Marshal for Utah Territory commanding him to summon from the body of the judicial district fifty jurors. They were summoned, and on the return of the venire the panel was challenged by the defendant because the jurors were selected and summoned on an open venire. The challenge was overruled, and the defendant excepted. Like proceedings took place in respect to two further open venires for thirty and twenty-four jurors, respectively. Of the twelve persons who composed the jury, eleven were obtained from those summoned under the open venires. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
It is assigned for error that the petit jury was illegally constituted in that the court had no right to summon petit jurors on an open venire. The argument is that the provisions of § 4 of the Act of June 23, 1874, are on their face exclusive; that the method prescribed by that section for obtaining jurors is the only one that can be employed; that only the probate judge and the clerk of the court can select the jurors and make the jury list; that the grand and petit jurors for a term must be drawn by the marshal from a box containing names of persons thus selected, and constitute the regular grand and petit juries for the term; that if, during the term, any additional grand or petit jurors are necessary, they must be drawn by the marshal, in open court, from the same box, and that if the two hundred names are all drawn out for grand or petit jurors at any time during the year, there can be no more indictments found or any more civil or criminal jury trials had in the court of the district for the rest of the year, because it is provided in § 4 that the jurors drawn from the box shall be jurors only for the term, of which there are four in the year, and that the names drawn shall not be again placed in the box until a new jury list is made, which is to be done annually in January. A result so disastrous to the administration of justice, so certain to impair, if not destroy, public and private rights, is not to be permitted unless imperatively required. The Act of June 23, 1874, does not prescribe the making of a new list by the probate judge and clerk except once a year in January, or the making by them of an additional list at any time during the year. But that act does not directly or by implication or intendment exclude the use of an open venire when the two hundred names are exhausted during the year. It provides that the jurors drawn and summoned shall constitute "the regular grand and petit juries for the term for all cases." By other provisions of law, each of the district courts of the territory is required to hold four terms a year. There is no doubt that jurors must be drawn from the two hundred names, or those of them remaining in the box, so long as any remain. But the question is what is to be done when those names are exhausted? If there is no method that can be resorted chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Section 4 of the act of 1874 prescribes the rule to be observed, to the extent in which it prescribes any rule. It proceeds on the view that the jury list of two hundred names will be sufficient for ordinary purposes or, as it expresses it, for "the regular grand and petit juries for the term," and it provides what shall be done so long as there are any names left in the box. But it is silent as to what shall take place when the names are all exhausted. It does not forbid the ordinary and well known resort to an open venire. Moreover, § 5 of the act of 1882, in regard to prosecutions like the present one, prescribes what shall be a sufficient cause of challenge to a person "drawn or summoned as a juryman or talesman," and what questions may be put to "any person appearing or offered as a juror or talesman," thus recognizing a "talesman" as distinct from a "juryman" or a "juror." The persons drawn from the box of two chanroblesvirtualawlibrary