Case Name: BRYANT v. STATE
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
Jurisdiction: Texas
Decision Date: 1924-02-20
Citations: 260 S.W. 598
Docket Number: No. 8303
Parties: BRYANT v. STATE.
Judges: 
Reporter: South Western Reporter
Volume: 260
Pages: 598–602

Head Matter:
BRYANT v. STATE.
(No. 8303.)
(Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.
Feb. 20, 1924.
Rehearing Denied March 26, 1924.)
1. Grand jury <&wkey;7—'That jury commissioner not freeholder dices not authorize quashal of indictment.
That a jury commissioner was not a freeholder does not authorize quashal of the indictment.
2. Grand jury &wkey;?7— Jury commissioner may serve twice within 12 months if in different calendar years; “year.”
Yernon’s Sayles’ Ann. Civ. St. 1914, art. 5123, was intended to prevent the same jury commissioner from acting twice during a calen dar year, in view of article 5504, and hence does not render a jury commissioner in October incompetent in the following April (citing Words and Phrases, First and Second Series, “Year”).
igcwFor other cases see same topic and KBY-NUMBER in all Key-Numbered Digests and Indexes
3. Grand jury &wkey;>8 — 'That list of jurors not signed by commissioners or returned and filed with clerk held1 not ground for quashal.
That the list of grand jurors was not signed by the commissioners nor returned and filed with the clerk held not ground for quashing the grand jury, in view of undisputed testimony that the list so drawn and returned was that from which the grand jury which found the indictment was dr-awn.
4. Jury <&wkey;70(l)— Order to summon 36 jurors for week, after sustaining motion to quash panel, held proper.
Where defendant’s motion to quash the jury panel for the week was sustained, the court properly directed the sheriff to summon 36 men to serve as a jury for such week.
5. Intoxicating liquors &wkey;>239(3)— Submission of questions as to manufacture directly or indirectly and alone or in connection with another held not error.
In a prosecution for manufacturing intoxicating liquor in violation of the Dean Law, where there was evidence sufficient to raise the question whether defendant or some member of his family with his knowledge manufactured the liquor, submission of the questions whether he made it directly or indirectly, and acted1 alone or in connection with another, was not error as placing an unnecessary burden on defendant or permitting conviction on less evidence than if the charge were different
6. Witnesses &wkey;>48(I) — Testimony of persons under suspended sentence held admissible.
Testimony of convicted felons whose sentences had been suspended held admissible.
7. Criminal law <@=>829(15) — Refusal of special charge substantially same as court’s charge not error.
Refusal of a special charge on circumstantial evidence in substantially the same verbiage as the court’s charge thereon held not error.
On Motion for Rehearing.
8. Grand jury &wkey;>7 — Refusal to quash indictment on ground that jury commissioner was not freeholder held not error.
Refusal to quash an indictment on the ground that one of the jury commissioners was not a freeholder, as required by Code Or. Proc. 1911, art. 384, held not error, though the motion was presented at the first possible moment, such an attack upon the indictment being necessarily upon the legality of the grand jury as a whole, in view of articles 409, 412, requiring that challenges to the array of grand jurors be made in writing before' the grand jury is impaneled, and solely on the ground that the persons summoned are not those selected by the commissioners, or that the officer summoning them acted corruptly.
cgrsoFor other eases see same topic and KEY-NUMBER in all Key-Numbered Digests and Indexes
Appeal from District' Court, Freestone County; J. R. Bell, Judge.
Mose Bryant was convicted of manufacturing intoxicating liquor, and appeals.
Affirmed.
Williford & Geppert and T. H. Bonner, all of Fairfield, and Boyd & Smith, of Teague, for appellant.
Tom Garrard, State’s Atty., and-Grover C. Morris, Asst. State’s Atty., both of Austin, for the State.

Opinion:
LATTIMORE, J.
Appellant was convicted in the district court of Freestone county of manufacturing intoxicating liquor, and his punishment fixed at one year in the penitentiary.
There are many bills of exception in the record which present objections to the same proceedings apparently from what appears to the appellant to be different angles. These matters will be treated by us in conjunction.
A searching party, including officers, went to appellant's premises on the night in question and watched same for some time. They finally saw a car drive up to appellant's house and remain for a period of time estimated at something less than half an hour. Various parties were seen in and around the car and going from it to where a still was subsequently discovered, and it was in testimony that one of the parties was identified by his voice as appellant. When the car finally left the house it was stopped by the searching party about 75 or 100 yards away, and in it were two negroes and a demijohn containing several gallons of whisky. Upon going to the house a still was found in appellant's smokehouse situated some 3 feet from the residence, said still being in operation. Appellant and his wife were not at the house, but appellant was shortly thereafter arrested. The car belonged to appellant. Both the' negroes who were in it appear to have been convicted for transporting intoxicating liquor, but the sentence of each was suspended. Both of them were used as witnesses against appellant.
By a bill of exceptions complaint is made of the court's refusal to sustain the motion to quash the indictment based upon the fact that one Hood was one of the jury commissioners that drew the grand jury which returned the indictment, and that,said Hood was not a qualified juror nor citizen of the county, nor a freeholder therein. The court heard testimony upon the issues raised by the motion to quash, which testimony appears in the record, and from which we conclude no error was committed in holding Mr. Hood to be a qualified juror and a citizen of the.county. On the-proposition that not being a freeholder would suffice to cause a quashing of the indictment, we conclude that Whittle v. State, 43 Tex. Cr. R. 468, 66 S. W. 771, settles the matter adversely to appellant's contention. We do not think the fact that another of the jury commissioners had served in a similar capacity in October, 1922, would render him incompetent to be a jury commissioner in April, 1923._ There is nothing in the statute which seerhs to forbid that one should serve as jury commissioner twice within a 12-month period, and in our opinion the service in October of one calender year would not forbid another service during the early part of the succeeding calendar year. The statute (article 5123, Vernon's Ann. Civ., St. 1914) intends to prevent the acting twice by the same commissioner during a calendar ydar. See Words and Phras, es under "Xear." Article 5594 of said statutes expressly says the word "year" shall be taken to mean calendar year. The contention'that the list of grand jurors was not signed by the commissioners, nor returned and filed with the clerk, and therefore the grand jury should be quashed, does not seem to us to present merit, in view of the fact that it was in testimony beyond dispute that the list of grand jurors so drawn and returned was in fact the one from which the grand jury that found the indictment in the instant case was drawn.
From another bill of exceptions and the qualification appended thereto by the learned trial judge we learn that appellant made a motion to quash the jury panel for the fourth week, which was sustained, whereupon the court directed the sheriff to summon 36 men to serve as a jury for the week. The objection to the service of said panel seems to be presented in said bill. Our statutes direct that, if the jurors fegularly drawn be disqualified or discharged, or fail to appear from any cause, and there be no jury, the trial court shall proceed as was 'done by the" judge in this particular instance. We think appellant cannot complain.
A large number of bills complain of that part of the charge which told the jury that they should convict if they believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the 'appellant "directly or indirectly" manufactured the liquor in question; also of that part of the charge wherein was submitted the proposition that, if appellant, either alone or in connection with any other person or persons, made said liquor, he should be found guilty. We see no good purpose that would be served by setting out at length the particular objections that were urged in the various bills of exception to the parts of the charge referred to. In our opinion the submission of the case to the jury in the form mentioned was justified by the facts and by the law. It is provided in what is known as the Dean Law that any person who either directly or indirectly manufactures, etc., intoxicating liquor, shall be deemed guilty, and there can be no question raised of the correctness, when supported by proper testimony, of the submission to the jury of the law of principals. We have stated enough of the evidence above to show that the question might be in the case as to whether appellant or some other member of his family with his knowledge manufactured the liquor. This would seem to make proper the submission to the jury of the question of whether he made it directly or indirectly, and also of whether he acted either alone or in connection with some other person in the making of the liquor. We do not see how the submission of either proposition places an unnecessary burden upon the appellant, nor how it can be said that a conviction could be secured upon less evidence than if the charge was different.
Objection to the testifying of the two negroes found in the car by the searching party upon the ground that they had been convicted of felonies would not seem tenable in view of the fact that the sentence of each had been suspended.
We have carefully examined the charge of the court on circumstantial evidence as well as the special charge asked upon that issue, and do not believe the charge open to the exception directed at it, nor that there is such difference between its verbiage and that of the special charge as to require the giving of the latter.
In our opinion the appellant has received a fair trial, and no error was committed that could in any way prejudice his case, and the judgment wil be affirmed.