Cunningham v. State

Decided October 15, 1908

Mississippi Supreme Court · decided 1908-10-15

From the circuit court of Monroe county. Hon. Eugene O. Syices, Judge. Cunningham, appellant, was indicted and tried for the murder of Polly Johnson, was convicted and sentenced to the penitentiary for life, and appealed to the supreme court. One of the grounds assigned in appellant’s motion for a new trial was predicated of the fact that during the deliberation of the jury and before rendition of the verdict one of the jurors separated himself from his fellows.

Relies on Skates v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1908-10-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 7 later decisions — most recently April 2007

7 state decisions

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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Fletcher, J.,

¶1delivered the opinion of the court.

¶2We do not think the proof as to separation of the juror Grady from his fellows is sufficient to reverse this case. It was said in Skales v. State, 64 Miss. 645, 1 South. 843, 60 Am. Rep. *23070, that it is not enough for the defendant to show that possibly some person might have been with the juror and communicated with him. In the case at bar it is highly improbable that the juror saw anybody during the period of his enforced withdrawal from the body of the jury.

¶3Though we are earnestly urged to reverse the case on the facts, after a careful consideration of the evidence, we do not feel justified in disturbing the verdict of the jury.

¶4Affirmed.