Court Opinion

ID: 9722500
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 09:37:16.38093+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:36.255545
License: Public Domain

On Petition for Rehearing.
Bobbitt, J.
— The state has filed a petition for rehearing in which it asserts that certain photographs, which are a part of State’s Exhibits Nos. 20 and 22, *84furnished evidence sufficient to identify the defendant-appellant herein as the person named in two previous felony judgments and commitments.
State’s Exhibit No. 20, which is a certificate signed by the Superintendent of the Indiana Reformatory, states therein that photograph, fingerprint record and commitment “attached hereto are copies of the original records of Joseph G. Smith” who was committed to the Indiana Reformatory and served a term of imprisonment therein.
State’s Exhibit No. 22 is a certificate by the Warden of the Kentucky State Reformatory stating that photographs, fingerprint record and commitment are copies of the original records of Joseph G. Smith who was committed to such institution and served a term of imprisonment therein.
While the photographs referred to were part of State’s Exhibits Nos. 20 and 22, there is no testimony that they were photographs of the defendant-appellant, Joseph Smith.
In Kelley v. State (1933), 204 Ind. 612, 185 N. E. 453, it was held that there was a failure to identify the appellant-Kelley, as the defendant referred to in the various judgments introduced in evidence. In that case certain photographs were admitted in evidence upon testimony of a Bertillon expert that they were photographs of the appellant, but there was no evidence that they were photographs of the defendant-Thomas Jacob Kelley, alias James Ross Petrie, alias Alexander Pousep, alias James Ross Cameron, alias C. E. Harris, convicted in the Delaware Circuit Court, the United States District Court, and in the State of New York. These photographs bore the name of one of the aliases referred to, together with printed statements describing the subject of the photograph as the *85criminal, and witnesses testified that the photographs were obtained from the Indiana Reformatory at Pendleton, the police department of New York City, and a detective magazine.
This court there held (at page 619 of 204 Ind.) that “[tjhese photograph exhibits furnish no legal evidence that the appellant was the same person referred to in the judgments.”
The circumstances in the present case are similar to those in Kelley v. State, supra, and in our judgment the rule there applied is applicable to the facts here, and the photographs contained in State’s Exhibits Nos. 20 and 22, per se, furnished no legal evidence that the appellant herein was the same person referred to in the judgment of the Marion Criminal Court, State’s Exhibit No. 19, and the judgment of the Warren Circuit Court of Kentucky, State’s Exhibit No. 21.
The State further asserts that we erred in granting appellant a new trial on the issue of forgery. We cannot say from the record here before us that the introduction of State’s Exhibits Nos. 19, 20, 21 and 22, showing former convictions and commitments of a Joseph G. Smith, did not influence the jury in its determination of the guilt or innocence of defendant-appellant on the charge of forgery.
The questions decided in the original opinion herein were presented in the argument section of appellant’s brief in substantial compliance with the rules of this court, and in our judgment they were properly considered.
For the foregoing reasons the petition for rehearing must be denied.
Petition for rehearing denied.
*86Jackson and Landis, JJ., concur;
Arterburn, C. J., dissents with opinion in which Achor, J., concurs.