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16 Ind. 496

Brown v. State

Indiana Supreme Court

Decided July 10, 1861

Indiana Supreme Court · decided 1861-07-10

<p>Quere: Whether a sole judge can be examined as a witness in a cause being tried in his Court.</p> <p>A criminal cause must be tried by the Court,'upon an agreement of the parties, or by a jury of twelve men.</p> <p>In a criminal cause, the attorney of the defendant waived a trial by a jury of twelve men, and consented to a trial by a less number than twelve, as a jury. The defendant, though present in Court, was not consulted, and did not know that he could object to the act of the attorney.</p> <p>■Held, that such a waiver, at all events, was not binding on the defendant.</p>

Relies on Durham v. Hudson · Jackson v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1861-07-10

How this case has been cited

Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently March 1978

13 state decisions

40186118701880189019001910192019301940195019601970decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Perkins, J.

¶1Prosecution for malicious trespass. Conviction ; punishment, fine and imprisonment.

¶2The case was tried by a jury of eleven.

¶3The sole judge who tried the cause was sworn as a witness in it, on behalf of the State.

¶4Greenleaf says, it is settled that the sole judge trying a cause can not be sworn as a witness in it, for the reason that while he is a witness, there is no judge. 1 Greenl. Ev., § 364, p. 508. It is not necessary that we should decide the point, in this case, and we do not. It must be reversed upon another ground, and will not be tried again before the judge who was the witness.

¶5A jury at common law consists of twelve men, and so it does by our criminal code, as that does not speak of a less number; and a trial by a less number, as a jury, is void. Jackson v. The State, 6 Blackf. 461; Brown v. TheState, 8 id. 561.

¶6In civil cases, the statute authorizes the parties to agree upon a less number, and a jury consisting of twelve may be waived. Durham v. Hudson, 4 Ind. 501; 2 R. S., § 308, p. 106.

¶7Our statute authorizes a jury to be waived, altogether, in criminal cases, except such as are capital, and the cause, by agreement, to be tried by the Court. 2 R. S., p. 371. By statute, then, a criminal case must be tried by the Court, upon an agreement of parties, or by a jury of twelve men. *497Can these provisions be waived, and a criminal cause be referred to the arbitrament of a number of men less than twelve,’ and not constituting the Court ? The case of Cancemi v. ThePeople, 18 New York Rep., p. 128, decides the negative of this question; that the waiver can not be made, even by the defendant in person, on the ground that the State has an interest in the administration of the criminal law for the punishment of her citizens.

B. B. Daily, for the appellant.

¶8In the case at bar, the waiver was made by the attorney, and though the defendant was present in Court, it appears .by ’ his affidavit that he was not consulted, and did not know that he could object to the act of the attorney." Such a waiver, at all events, is not sufficient, and is not binding on the defendant. See The State v. Wamire, ante, p. 357, where it is held that an attorney can not bind his client by consent to the discharge of the jury, on the trial of a criminal cause.

Per Curiam.

¶9judgment is reversed. Cause remanded for a new trial.

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