Court Opinion

ID: 9561368
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:08:57.490718+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:13:45.479707
License: Public Domain

MR. JUSTICE ANGSTMAN:
(dissenting).
The only issue on the appeal in case No. 9325, State v. Dryman, *407Mont. 269 Pac. (2d) 796, was whether Dryman could have a fair trial in Toole County. I thought he could and that he already has had a fair trial. No issue was presented as to conditions in Teton County.
The only issue presented by the petition for change of venue was: ‘ ‘ That the people of the County of Toole, State of Montana, are so prejudiced against the said defendant that he cannot have a fair trial and that it is impossible to obtain a jury in the County of Toole, State of Montana, that has not formed an opinion, as to the guilt or innocence of the said defendant, such as would disqualify them as jurors.”
The only evidence presented in the record and considered by the district court and this court was evidence relating to the conditions in Toole County. True, this court pointed out that the newspaper article which was the basis of the claim of prejudice had a circulation of 1655 in Toole County, 75 in Glacier County, 80 in Pondera County and 115 in Liberty County. This was the only evidence of conditions in other counties than Toole and there was no evidence whatsoever as to Teton County. This court’s opinion did not consider the conditions in Teton County and in fact made no reference whatsoever to adjacent or adjoining counties until the concluding paragraph of its opinion where it ordered a change of place of trial from Toole County “to some other county not adjacent thereto.”
In my opinion what the majority of this court said as to adjacent counties was dictum. If it be not considered as dictum then it must be considered as having no application to Teton County because there was no more evidence concerning the condition in Teton County than there was regarding conditions in Treasure County or any other county not adjoining Toole County.
So far as the order of the state prison board is concerned, it too had nothing to do with conditions in Teton County. If the board’s conclusion is to be given the meaning ascribed to it by the majority opinion, then no county in Montana is a proper place for the trial because the board said in its order “the only safe place for the defendant until the Supreme Court has acted on the *408appeal for a stay of execution -would be the Montana State Prison.” That order excludes every county jail in the state.
I think the writ applied for should be denied.