People v. Scannell

On November 22, 1901, the grand j'ury presented an indictment for conspiracy against the defendants, Scannell and Marks, and two indictments against the defendant Scannell for neglect of duty. Each of these indictments charged a misdemeanor. Subsequently, on being arraigned for pleading, the defendants interposed a plea in abatement on grounds included in the present motion. This plea was overruled. Then the defendants moved to quash and set aside the indictments on the following grounds: First, that the grand jury was not a constitutional or a legally constituted grand jury, in that two of its members were not residents of the county of New York; •secondly, that the indictments are void because a member of the grand jury, who was not a resident of the county, was present and participated in the proceedings; thirdly, that the indictments were not found, indorsed, and presented as required by sections 268 and 272 of the Criminal Code; fourthly, that a member of the grand jury, who was not a resident of the county, was permitted to be present at the ses■sions of the grand jury while the charges embraced in the indictment were under consideration, in violation of sections 262-264 of the Code; fifthly, that the evidence submitted to the grand jury did not warrant the findings of the indictments; and, sixthly, that incompe

An objection, preliminary in its nature, is interposed by the district attorney, which, if sustained, necessarily destroys the defendants’' case on this motion. The defendants claim that the indictments were not found by a legally constituted grand jury, and that, therefore, they cannot be put upon trial, because of the guaranty in the fifth amendment to the federal constitution, which declares that no person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise! infamous crime unless on a presentment or indictment by a grand jury. To this a sufficient answer is found in the decisions of the courts holding that this amendment does not apply to the states, but only to the federal government and courts. Hurtado v. People, 110 U. S. 516 , 4 Sup. Ct. 111 , 28 L. Ed. 232 ; McNulty v. People, 149 U. S. 645 , 13 Sup. Ct. 959 , 37 L. Ed. 882 ; Livingston v. Mayor, etc., 8 Wend. 85 , 22 Am. Dec. 622 .

The further claim is made that the indictments, having been found by an illegal grand jury, are void, and that the defendants are protected from prosecution by article 1, § 6, of our state constitution, which declares that no person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on presentment or indictment by a grand jury. This provision of the constitution, the prosecution says, cannot be invoked by the defense, for the reason that it applies only to infamous crimes; and, since the defendants are charged with ihisdemeanors only, and could be proceeded against by information instead of by indictment, defects in the personnel of the grand jury are immaterial, and, even though they exist, no constitutional rights of the defendants have been violated. It • is true that protection against criminal prosecution, unless by the intervention of a grand jury, is guarantied by the constitution only in cases of felony, and that the defendants, being charged with misdemeanors, could have been

A clear understanding of the questions raised requires their orderly arrangement into—First, the object and effect of the motion; and, Secondly, the merits upon which it rests. Plainly, the object is to assail the record of the court, and to effect a destruction of "that which is novv a verity. The record of the court, and the proceedings of which it .is bound to take judicial notice, are as follows: On the 8th of December, 1900, the board for the selection of grand jurors certified to the selection, from the list produced by the commissioner of jurors of persons qualified to serve as jurors-in the comity of New York, of 996 persons to serve as grand jurors for the different terms of the court of general sessions during the year 1-901. This was in pursuance of chapter 484 of the Daws of 1895. On the 9th day of October, 1901, by order of court, a panel of 50 persons, from the list so selected, was drawn to serve as grand jurors for the November term of the court (Code Cr. Proc. §§ 225, 227; Laws 1895, c. 484), and on the first day of the term 23 of the persons so drawn were impaneled and sworn as the grand jury of the county for that term of the court. Code Cr. Proc. § 236. No individual grand juror was challenged for any cause. During that term of court the grand jury so impaneled and sworn found and presented in court true bills of indictment against the defendants. It is not questioned - that all the proceedings up to| and including the filing of the indictments were in form regular and 'according to law. Here, then, is a judicial record of a court of original and competent jurisdiction which proves itself,

“If the defect in the constitution of the tribunal deprived it of the character of a grand jury in a constitutional sense, there can be no doubt that the court would have been bound to take notice of it, although no statute authorized it, or even if the statute assumed to preclude the raising of the objection. But when the defect is not of that character, and the defendant may be held to answer the indictment without invading any constitutional right, then the question is one of procedure merely.”

Even if it be conceded that this is obiter, yet the opinion of that learned jurist is entitled to very great respect, and, if need be, it is rendered more lucid by reading in connection with it other parts of the same opinion, wherein he said:

“He [the defendant] was entitled to have an indictment found by a grand jury before being put upon his trial. An indictment was found by a body drawn, summoned, and sworn as a grand jury, before a competent court, and composed of good and lawful men. This, we think, fulfilled the constitutional guaranty. The jury which found the indictment was a de facto jury, selected and organized under the forms of law. The defects in its constitution, owing to the invalidity of the law of 1881, affected no substantial right of the defendant. We confine our decision upon this point to the case presented by the record, and hold that an indictment found by a jury of good and lawful men selected and drawn as a grand jury under color of law, and recognized by the court and sworn as a grand jury, is a good indictment

by a grand jury within the sense of the constitution, although the law under which the selection was made is void.”

In the case at bar the record shows, and therefore the legal presumption is, that the grand jury that found the indictments was “selected and organized under the forms of law,” and was “recognized by the court and sworn as a grand jury,” and therefore was a legal grand jury, competent to find indictments, and the constitutional requirement that the defendant should not be held to answer for a crime unless on indictment of a grand jury was complied with.

In People v. Jewett, 3 Wend. 314 , defendant was indicted for conspiracy, and a motion to quash was made on the grounds: (1) That the grand jury was improperly selected because of the exclusion of members of a certain society; and (2) that two of the grand jurors were incompetent, having, before their being impaneled, formed and expressed a hostile opinion as to the guilt of the defendant. Savage, C. J., in delivering the opinion of the court, said:

“The books are silent on the subject of such exception after indictment found, and, in the absence of authority, I am inclined to say, in consideration of the inconvenience and delay which would unavoidably ensue in the administration of criminal justice, were a challenge to a grand juror permitted to be made after he was sworn and impaneled, that the objection comes too late.”

In People v. Hooghkerk, 96 N. Y. 149 , the defendant was held to answer, and, before the grand jury was sworn or impaneled, filed a written protest or objection, under oath, against the swearing or -recognition by the court of the persons summoned as grand jurors as a grand jury, on the ground that they were not drawn or summoned as required by law. The court reaffirmed its ruling in People v. Petrea, supra, that the law which provided for the selection of grand jurors in the particular county was unconstitutional, but that, notwithstanding, a defendant indicted by a grand jury so selected might be properly put upon trial. The only question, therefore, left .open was whether the defendant could take the objection to the grand jury before indictment, which, in the Petrea Case, it was held he could not take after indictment. In discussing this question the court said that:

“By section 238, Or. Code, a challenge to the panel or array of grand jurors is prohibited, but the section authorizes the court, in its discretion, to discharge the panel for causes specified. * * * Section 239 authorizes a challenge to be interposed to an individual grand juror for certain specified causes. * * * The power conferred by section 238 is in the general interest of public justice; that conferred by section 239 is in the particular and special interest of the person accused. The objection interposed to the panel in this case in behalf of the defendant was in the nature of a challenge to the array, and a right of a defendant to challenge the body of the grand jury because irregularly or defectively constituted no longer exists, and we find no provision of law permitting a defendant to raise any objection to the grand jury, except an objection to individual jurors under section 239.”

The objection in the case at bar is that the grand jury that found the indictment was not a constitutional or legally constituted grand jury. This, the court of appeals says, is in the nature of a challenge to the array, and the right of the defendant to challenge the body of the grand jury no longer exists; hence there is no provision of law

It was held in Dolan v. People, 6 Hun, 494 , that an objection to a grand juror must be intended as a challenge; that being the only mode known to the law of making such objection. Code Cr. Proc. § 359.

The question raised in People v. Shattuck, 6 Abb. N. C. 33 , was not as to the constitutionality or illegality of the grand jury as a body, or the disqualification of any of its members, but as to the fact of an indictment having been found. It was contended by the defendant that in fact the grand jury had not voted to find an indictment. The learned judge held that, if such an error occurred, it was consistent with the general superintending power and duty of the court to institute an inquiry. An inquiry was instituted, and on the facts the motion was denied. The decision in this case cannot, as an authority, be extended beyond the particular facts presented.

In Low’s Case, 4 Greenl. 439, 16 Am. Dec. 271 , the defendant made a motion to set aside the indictment on the ground that 12 grand jurors did not concur, and he further moved that he be allowed to prove it by the testimony of the foreman. It appeared by the deposition of the foreman that when the indictment was found the grand jury acted under the belief that a majority vote was sufficient to find a bill. Being present at a subsequent term of court, he heard the presiding judge charge the grand jury that it required the concurrence of at least 12 to find an indictment. He then realized that he had made a mistake, and disclosed the fact. The court held that an indictment of record has all the legal verity which belongs to that species of evidence, and is of the certainty which a regular judicial record carries with it, but, from the necessity of the case, there must be a power in the court to vacate or amend a record erroneously made by the court or any of its officers, and ruled that the motion should have been granted. But the court says:

“It could only be in a very clear case, where it could be made to appear manifestly and beyond every reasonable doubt that an indictment, apparently legal and formal, had not, in fact, the sanctions which the law and the constitution require, that the court would sustain a motion to quash or dismiss it upon a suggestion of this kind.”

In People v. Hulbut, 4 Denio, 136 , 47 Am. Dec. 244 , Bronson, C. J., said:

“The indictment, when presented in due form by the grand jury, and filed in court, is a record; and, like other records, imports absolute verity. It

cannot be impeached unless it be done upon motion, by showing that it was not founded upon sufficient evidence, or that there was any other fault or irregularity in the proceedings.”

The facts in the Low Case were of an exceptional character. I have been unable to find a parallel. But even in that case the court recognized the principle of the inviolability of the record, and that an exception could arise only when such an extraordinary occurrence deprived the accused of his right to protection from trial, unless on indictment found by at least 12 grand jurors.

A distinction should be drawn between causes which may affect the qualification of an individual drawn or selected to serve as a grand juror and the act of a grand jury after being impaneled and sworn. Those causes which may affect the individual, if attention be' not called to them at the proper time, will, in the absence of fraud, be deemed effaced when the individual becomes merged in the body of the grand jury; and thenceforth the court will regard the grand jury as a legal entity, and in that capacity only will its actions be inquired into. Were an accused permitted to assail an indictment on the ground of the disqualification of a particular grand juror who participated in its finding, the courts would be called upon to pass not only on the question of his residence, but whether he was “a good and lawful man of the county,” whether he or his wife was possessed of the necessary property qualification, whether he was in possession of his rational faculties and not infirm or decrepit, and whether he was free from all legal exceptions, intelligent, of sound mind and good character, and able to read and write the English language understandingly. These are the qualifications of a trial juror (Code Civ. Proc. § IQ79), and they are also the qualifications of a grand juror. If, after indictment found, the gate be once opened to inquire into any one of the causes of disqualification as to an individual grand juror, when is it to be closed? If one cause be inquired into, why not another? The law does not attach greater importance to one than it does to the others; and if the rule be once established that, without charge of fraud or mistake resulting in a manifest and substantial wrong, the court should, on motion of the defendant, institute an inquiry into the qualifications of grand jurors after indictment found, a condition would inevitably arise, from delays and obstructions generated by such a practice, that would be intolerable in the administration of criminal justice.

The decisions in other states upon the questions under consideration are as conflicting as they are numerous, and it would, indeed, be a task of magnitude for any mind to deduce from them a correct and controlling principle. As varied are the decisions as the standards of qualifications differ in the several jurisdictions, ranging from Wyoming, where women are qualified as grand jurors, to Utah, where polygamists are disqualified. So there is danger of false reasoning from a false premise by using an excerpt or dictum from the opinion of a learned jurist without regard to the laws of the jurisdiction or the facts of the case. And, in the same way, a rule prescribed by a text writer may be quoted and repeated as a Medean law without regard to the then .existing laws or to subsequent changing conditions'. It is freely quoted from Hawkins’ Pleas of the Crown:

“If one of the grand jury who find an indictment he within any one of the exceptions in the statute, he vitiates the whole, though never so many unexceptionable persons joined with him in finding it” 2 Hawk. P. C. §g 25-28.

To fully appreciate the force and application of this rule, a clear understanding should be had of the “exceptions in the statute” to which the writer referred. The statute which was in force at the time he wrote was the n Hen. IV. c. 9, which recited:

“That because inquests had been taken by persons who were outlawed for treason or felony, or who had found indictments for their advantage or lucre, therefore, that no indictment be henceforth made by any such person, but by inquests of the king’s lawful liege people returned by the sheriff or bailiffs of franchises according to the law of England.”

The evils which this law was meant to remedy do not exist under our institutions; and, when a rule designed to meet the exigencies of the times when outlaws, traitors, felons, and villains sat on grand juries is cited as applicable to our times and conditions, it is likely to mislead. But even under the law of England it was laid down that:

“Those returned to serve on the grand jury must be good and lawful men, and ought to be of the same county where the crime was committed; and therefore it is a good exception at common law to one returned that he is an alien or a villain, or that he is outlawed for a crime; but .these exceptions must be taken before indictment.” Bac. Abr. tit. “Jury,” (A).

I have been unable to find—aided as I have been by the learning and research of counsel for defendants—in the whole history of English criminal law a case in which, after indictment, an exception to an individual grand juror on the ground of his being a nonresident of the county was sustained. Nor is there a case in our own state in which, after'indictment, a disqualification of an individual grand juror attaching to him personally before he was sworn as a grand juror has been held to vitiate the indictment; and, while the question raised here has not been directly passed upon, yet a fair inference may be drawn from the opinion of the courts on cognate questions that the weight of authority is decidedly antagonistic to the contention of the defendants. Indeed, it has been decided that, in any event, this motion should not prevail, since it is not based upon any one of the causes, enumerated in section 313 of the Criminal Code, which declares that for no other cause than one of those enumerated shall the indictment be set aside on motion of the defendant. People v. Rutherford, 47 App. Div. 209 , 62 N. Y. Supp. 224 ; People v. Willis, 23 Misc. Rep. 568 , 52 N. Y. Supp. 808 ; People v. Winant, 24 Misc. Rep. 361 , 53 N. Y. Supp. 695 ; People v. O’Connor, 31 Misc. Rep. 668 , 66 N. Y. Supp. 126 ; People v. Spolasco, 33 Misc. Rep. 530 , 68 N. Y. Supp. 924 . If, as was suggested in the latter case, a discretion is vested in the "court, to be exercised in the interests of justice where a manifest injustice has been done, it cannot be invoked here, for there is an utter absence of any proof that the defendants have been in any way prejudiced. In the cases arising in other states, and cited by defendants’ counsel, where disqualification was alleged against an individual grand juror, the courts proceeded upon the theory that the disqualified juror, being in the grand-jury room at the time the indictment was found, might have participated in and influenced the finding. Here there is

It is urged that a different standard of qualifications is required of a grand juror from that which is required of a petit juror, on the basis of section 223 of the Criminal Code, which reads, “A grand jury is a body of men returned, at stated periods from the citizens of the county.” Emphasis is laid upon the words “citizens of the county.” A literal adherence to these words would lead to what the law abhors, —an absurdity. Citizenship may be conferred by a nation or state, but not by a political subdivision thereof. A county is a political subdivision of the state. It cannot confer citizenship, and it follows that there cannot be such a civic character as a citizen of a county. Prentiss v. Barton’s Ex’rs, 1 Brock. 389 , Fed. Cas. No. 11,384, per Marshall, C. J. The true meaning, and that which is consonant with reason, is that the grand jury shall be drawn, from the citizens of the United States who are of the county. Standing alone, this section would be simply a definition, but read in connection with subsequent sections it forms part of a coherent plan for the organization of a grand jury. Section 225 prescribes the terms of court—i. e., the “stated periods”—for which a grand jury shall be “returned”; and section 229 provides for the composition of the grand jury when it declares that "the mode of selecting grand jurors is prescribed by special statutes.” These “special statutes” are incorporated in chapter 484, Laws 1895, which provides that a board consisting of certain officials shall, at a specified time in each year, select from the list produced by the commissioner of jurors of persons qualified to serve as jurors a certain number to serve as grand jurors for the ensuing year. The qualifications óf a trial juror are prescribed by section 1079, Code Civ. Proc., to be, among other things, a male citizen of the United States, and a resident of the county; and section 1080 declares that “a person dwelling or lodging in the city and county of New York, for the greater part of the time, between the first day of October and the thirtieth day of June, * * * is a resident of that city and county for that jury year within the meaning of the last section [i. e., 1079], and it is not necessary, that he should have been assessed, or should have voted there.” When the sections of the Criminal Code, the special, statutes, and the sections of the Code of Civil Procedure are read together, it will be seen that a complete system is formulated,

I am not unmindful of the difficulties which beset the question, nor of the grave results to the administration of the criminal law in New York which would follow a judicial approval of defendants’ contention, when it is remembered that the grand jury for that term of court presented 295 indictments. While matters of expediency should not be considered where the law is clear and the wrong to the individual is manifest, yet, in the absence of express and binding authority, and where it is manifest that in any event the defendants have not sustained a substantial wrong, a court of first instance should be extremely cautious, and be firmly convinced of the right of the case before departing from established practice and salutary principles. People v. Jewett, supra.

From the laws prescribing the qualifications and mode of selection of grand jurors for this county; from the sections of the Code of Criminal Procedure prescribing the time when and the causes for which the court may discharge a panel of grand jurors, also the time when and the causes for which a challenge to an individual grand juror may be interposed, also the causes for which an indictment may be set aside; from judicial authority and opinion in this state on cog

Motion denied.