Court Opinion

ID: 9560787
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:56:04.600208+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:13:11.884389
License: Public Domain

WORTHEN, Justice
(concurring).
I agree with Mr. Justice HENRIOD that the judgment must be reversed. I however am of the opinion that it is absolutely improper to permit the jurors to ask questions of the witnesses.
■ The error committed in this case should have been anticipated by the language of this court in the case of State v. Anderson1 referred to by Mr. Justice HENRIOD. In that case the court, during the course of the trial, asked the jury if it would like to ask some questions of a witness. Two members of the jury accepted this invitation. Appellants assigned the invitation by the court to the jurors to ask questions as error. In that case this court said:
“Whether a juror will be permitted to ask questions of a witness is within the discretion of the trial court. * * * The fact that the trial court granted the jurors permission to ask questions of witnesses without any special request from them for this privilege does not, in our opinion, in and of itself constitute error. The determining factors as to whether error has been committed is the type of questions asked and allowed to he answered. If the questions asked are not germane to the issues involved or are such as zvould he clearly improper and therefore prejudicial to the rights of the defendants to a fair and impar-., tial trial, the court’s allowing them to *391be answered would be error. sis added.) ” (Empha-
In my opinion no juror should ever be allowed to ask questions of the witnesses. If a juror indicates that he has a question the court should invite the juror to disclose to the court the question and the court, if the question suggested is not germane to the issues involved or is such as would be clearly improper and therefore prejudicial to the rights of the defendants to a fair and impartial trial should not permit the question to be propounded. If the question is germane to the issues, and would not be prejudicial to the rights of the defendants to a fair and impartial trial, the judge in turn should ask the question himself.
Assume that a juror requests the privilege of asking a question and the court, without first making sure that the same would be germane and proper, turns the juror loose to ask such questions as he chooses — the very asking of an improper, immaterial and prejudicial question will have caused too much mischief. Whereas if the court first satisfies himself that the question or • questions are proper and then asks them the harm may be avoided.
Even if this court continues to adhere to the proposition that a juror may ask questions such privilege should be limited to the asking of questions first approved by the trial court.
CROCKETT, J., concurs in the views expressed by Mr. Justice WORTHEN.

. 108 Utah 130, 158 P.2d 127, 159 A.L.R. 340.