Court Opinion

ID: 9855685
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:29:12.134775+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:36:19.912131
License: Public Domain

*150UDALL, C. J., and STRUCKMEYER, J.,
(specially concurring).
We agree defendant was accorded a fair and impartial trial, and that the evidence was such as to warrant the jury finding him guilty of murder in the first degree and fixing the penalty at death. We are also convinced that in the instant case the learned trial court exercised no coercion to force a verdict. We therefore concur in affirming the judgment of the lower court.
Inasmuch as the trial court gave the controversial instruction set forth haec verba in the foregoing opinion, and a few other trial judges are still using it, candor impels us to express our convictions thereon. However, it is not our purpose to rehash the arguments pro and con for the subject has been very fully covered in the majority and dissenting opinions in the Voeckell case, which are now supplemented by Justice WINDES’ illuminating statements in the instant case. The legal principles enunciated in the Voeckell dissent are in accord with our deep-seated views. We do not claim that the giving of this instruction of itself constitutes reversible error, for its coercive effect is necessarily dependent upon the circumstances under which it is given and its resulting effect upon the jury. Considering all these imponderable factors it seems to us the giving of this instruction is so fraught with danger of coercion, that wisdom would dictate its use by the trial judges, should be rare indeed.
We are very pleased that the court’s opinion makes it crystal clear "It is not imperative that the instruction he given at all * * We desire to serve notice that so long as we are members of the court we shall most carefully scrutinize the circumstances surrounding the giving of such instruction, and if it reasonably appears that the jury has been subjected thereby to duress or coercion we shall not hesitate to vote for a reversal.