Case Name: STATE OF OHIO v. THOMAS HALL
Court: Clinton County Court of Common Pleas
Jurisdiction: Ohio
Decision Date: 1895
Citations: 3 Ohio N.P. 125
Docket Number: 
Parties: STATE OF OHIO v. THOMAS HALL.
Judges: 
Reporter: Ohio nisi prius and general term reports
Volume: 3
Pages: 125–126

Head Matter:
(Clinton County Court of Common Pleas.)
STATE OF OHIO v. THOMAS HALL.
Charge — Burglary & Larceny.
Evidence that a dog of the breed known as blood-hounds, and trained to follow human tracks, was, within twenty-four hours after a burglary and larceny, put upon the scent or track of a person at the building burglarized, or at a place where the stolen property was found concealed, and that the dog as if trailing or following such track or scent wont to the house of the defendant and stopped at his door, is competent to go to the jury, with other testimony, as a circumstance tending to connect him with the crime.

Opinion:
VAN PELT, J.
On the trial of this case the State called as a witness one Wm. B. Britton,and offered to drove by him that he was the owner of a blood-hound about nine years old ; that the dog had been carefully trained to follow the scent of human tracks; that it had been previously tested and found to follow.such tracks with certainty and success; that such tests had been made by putting the dog on the trail of persons who had started out, on foot, from twenty to forty hours ahead of the hound to see if it could follow them; that it had also been tested in following tracks from places where crimes had been committed, and that persons thus trailed by the dog,had, in a number of cases, confessed their guilt; that in the case on trial, on Sunday evening, after the burglary on Saturday night, a basket filled with a part of the stolen property had been found under a freight car about 200 yards from the place of the burglary ; that the dog had been taken to the spot where the basket was found, the same evening, and there put on the scent; that starting from that spot and with-all the acts and indications of trailing, it had gone across a coal yard or lot, along an alley for about 150 feet to the street on which the defendant lived, then turning in the direction of defendant's house had trailed along the sidewalk till it reached his front gate, and there, pausing for a moment, had turned and passed through the gate, and, there being two front doors to the house, had turned to the left, and gone up to defendant's front door and there stopped; and that the house of defendant was about 200 feet from the place where the basket was found.
W. H. Hartman, prosecuting attorney, for the state.
Miller & Carroll, for defendant.
Defendant objected to admitting any evidence as to the training and testing of the dog, and as to its alleged trailing or tracking to his house. The objection was overruled, and the evidence admitted. Was this error?
It is a matter of common Knowledge and therefore a matter of which courts will take notice, that the breed of dogs known as blood-hounds are possessed of a high degree of intelligence and acuteness of scent, and may be trained to follow human tracks with considerable certainty and success, if put upon a recent trail. In Chamber's Bncy., under the title "Blood hound, " it is sí:*'"] of this dog. that "it is remarkable for its exquisito scent and for its great sagacity and perseverance in tracking any object to the pursuit of which it has boon trained ;" that "it has been frequently used for ihe pursuit of felons and deer slayers, and, in America, for the capture of fugitive slaves,;" and the writer refers to the use of theso dogs .in border warfare, and to their importation "into Jamaica in 1790, to be used in suppressing the Maroon insurrection, but the terror occasioned by their arrival produced the effect without their actual employment. " The Bncy. Britannica (9th Ed.), under the title "Dog, " bears this testimony to the well known traits of this animal. "The blood-hound is remarkable for the acuteness of its scent, its discrimination in keeping to the particular scent on which it is first laid, and the intelligence and pertinacity with which it pursues its object to a successful issue. These qualities have beer, taken advantage of not only in the chase, but also in the pursuit of felons and fugitives of every kind." According to Strako, these dogs were used in an attack upon the Gauls. In the clan feuds of the Scottish Highlands, and in the frequent wars between England and Scotland, they were regularly employed in tracking fugitive warriors, and were thus employed, according to early chroniclers, in pursuit of Wallace and Bruce. The former is said to have put the hound off the scent by killing a suspected follower, on whose corpse the hound stood. Fora similar purpose captives were often killed. Bruce is said to have baffled his dogged pursuer as effectually, though less cruelly, by wading-some distance down a stream, and then ascending a tree by a branch which overhung the water, and thus breaking the scent. In the histories of border feuds these dogs constantly appear as employed in the pursuit of enemies, and the renown of the warrior was great who, 'By wily turns and desperate bounds,' 'Had baffled Percy's best bloodhounds.' In suppressing the Irish rebellion in the time of Queen Elizabeth, the Earl of Essex had, it is said, 800 of these animals accompanying the army. The employment of the blood hound in the capture of runaway slaves, and in ihe cruelties connected with the suppression of negro insurrections, has brought the animals into the evil repute which more properly belongs to the inhuman masters, who thus prostituted the courage, sagacity, and protinacity of this noble dog to such revolting purposes. "
Both history, therefore, and natural history testify to the exceptional keenness of scent and capacity for training of this variety of hound. Whatever may bo said of the wisdom or humanity of resorting to this means of detecting and securing the apprehension of criminals, there can be no doubt, that, where a well trained dog is set upon a recent track and follows it, in the usual manner of such dogs in following a trail, up to the person or home of the accused, these facts may, on the plain principles governing circumstantial evidence, be shown as tending to connect him with the crime chaiged. It was so held in the ease of Hodge v. State, 98 Ala. 10 (39 Am. St. Rep. 17), which is the only ease I have found directly in point. Of course, in such cases full opportunity should be given to inquire into the breeding and testing of the, dog, and to all the circumstances attending the trailing in the case on trial, and to ihe manner m which tbe dog then acted and was handled by the person having it in charge. The weight to be given to the tracking as evidence against the accused will depend largely upon these matters.
There was no error in admitting the evidence offered by the state in this case, and the defendant's objection was properly overruled.