Opinion ID: 1433236
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Trigger Pull

Text: Opie testified at his trial that he had filed the trigger release on his gun so that it had a sort of hair trigger, in other words a tendency to be discharged with a very light trigger pull. An F.B.I. agent, however, testified the gun was not an unsafe weapon and had a normal trigger pull. In connection with his motion for new trial, Opie alleges newly discovered evidence in the form of new opinion evidence by gun experts who would testify the gun is an unsafe weapon with a light trigger pull of only two and one-half pounds. Here again, the alleged newly discovered evidence is evidence which contradicts evidence produced at the trial. It speaks to a matter in relation to which there was evidence at the trial, and for this reason the judge who heard petitioner's motion would have been justified in denying the motion. United States v. Johnson, 7 Cir., 142 F.2d 588, 592, certiorari dismissed 323 U.S. 806, 65 S.Ct. 264, 89 L.Ed. 643. Aside from that reason, however, the judge may have considered that the gun itself was in evidence at Opie's trial. Members of the jury must have had an opportunity to examine the gun and see for themselves whether the trigger pull was relatively normal or unusually light. The members of our court made such an examination when Opie's conviction was before us on appeal, and we were unable to say the pull was not relatively normal. In Pan American Petroleum Corporation v. Like, Wyo., 381 P.2d 70, 73, we said expert testimony is not necessary where the matter involved is within the common knowledge and experience of the jurors. Although the opinions of experts may have been helpful to the jury in deciding, if it needed to so decide, whether the gun had a lighter than usual trigger pull, that was not the ultimate issue to be decided in this instance. The question was not whether the gun could have been accidentally discharged, but whether it actually was accidentally discharged. On that issue the defendant had a complete and full hearing. Anything he might add now would be purely cumulative or contradictory and hence not such newly discovered evidence as would warrant a new trial. Under these circumstances, the judge who heard petitioner's motion was entitled to believe the alleged newly discovered evidence relative to trigger pull would not be likely to produce a different verdict. He was therefore, justified in denying this ground for a new trial.