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Dr Samuel Sheppard — Part 2
Page 22
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re te ik te mts nina
— or
42 . Sheppard v. Mazxwell
with them about it. We must assume they followed
the court’s instructions. No complaint is made that
they disregarded these instructions every night for
some seven weeks that they were allowed to go home
at the close of each day’s session of the trial. It is
difficult to visualize a juror who will follow a court’s
instruction during the many hours he spends each
evening and week end with his family and then delib-
erately disregard that instruction in.a few brief mo-
ments he speaks to a member of his«family on the
telephone in the presence of a bailiff.
“The law of Ohio is that no judgment of conviction
shall be reversed in any court for any cause unless it
appears affirmatively from the record that the defend-
ant was prejudiced thereby or was prevented from
having a fair trial. Section 2945.83, Revised Code.
. There is no such affirmative showing of prejudice
here, and this court will not presume a prejudice as
a matter of law from the fact that some of the jurors
made telephone calls to members of their immediate
families.”
The foregoing is not only the law of Ohio on this question
but, in our view, Is just plain common sense. Here again
the District Judge placed reliance on cases the facts of
which disclose their lack of resemblance to the case before
him and us. State v. Adams, 141 Ohio St. 428, 48 NE (2)
861, 146 ALR 509 (1948) ; Emmert v. State, 127 Ohio St.
235, 187 NE 862, 90 ALR 242 (1933); and Mattox vy.
United States, 146 US. 140, 36 L. Ed. 917 (1892). In
State y, Adams, a bailiff who had been told by the jury
that it could not agree said to them, “you can’t do that. You
must reach. a decision if you have to stay here for three
months.” In-Emmert v. State, the officer in charge of the
jury remarked to certain jurors, “My God, you are all wet.
Judge Stahl expects you to return a verdict of guilty and if
you don’t it will be just too bad.” Aside from this obvious
mappositeness, these Ohio cases were found not controlling
of this case by the Ohio Court. Mattox v. United States
No. 16077
to ease the jurors’ minds as to personal matters and
would make them better, more conscientious jurors.
Time after time, the members of this jury were in-
structed by the court not to communicate with anyone
concerning this case or. permit anyone to communicate
No. 16077 Sheppard v. Maxwell 43
involved direct review of a federal trial. Because the
dissenting opinion frequently cites Mattox to support its
conclusions, we have set out in the margin Chief Justice
Fuller’s recital of the facts in Mattox ** because it dis-
12“In support of his motion for new trial the defendant offered the
affidavits of two of the jurors that the bailiff who had charge of the
jury in the case after the cause had been heard and submitted, ‘and while
they were deliberating of their verdict,’ ‘in the presence and hearing of
the jurors or a part of them, speaking of the case, said: “After you
fellows get through with this case it will be tried again down there,
Thompson has poison in a bottle that them fellows tried to give him.
And at another time, in the presence and hearing of said jury or a part
of them, referring to the defendant, Clyde Mattox, said: “This is the
third fellow he has killed.”’ The affidavit of another juror to the same
effect in respect of the remark of the bailiff as to Thompson was also
offered, and in addition, the affidavits of eight of the jurors, includin
the three just mentioned, ‘that after said cause had been submitte
to the jury, and while the jury were deliberating of their verdict and
before they had agreed upon a verdict in the case, a certain newspaper
printed and published in the city of Wichita, Kansas, known as The
Wichita Daily Eagle, of the date of Thursday morning, October 8, 1891,
was introduced into the jury room; that said paper contained a comment
upon the case under consideration by said jury, and that said comment
upon said case so under consideration by said jury, was read to the
jury in their presence and hearing; that the comment so read to said
Jury is found upon the fifth page of said paper, and in the third column
of said page, and is as follows:
“*6The Mattox case—The jury retired at noon yesterday and is still
out.
“©The destiny of Clyde Mattox is now is [sic] the hands of the
twelve citizens of Kansas composing the jury in this ease. If he is not
found guilty of murder he will be a lucky man, for the evidence against
him was very strong, or at least appeared to be to an outsider. The case
was given to the jury at noon yesterday, and it was expected that their
deliberations would not last an hour before they would return a verdict.
The hour passed and nine more of them with it, and still a verdict was
not reached by 10:30 last night, when the jury adjourned and went to
their rooms at the Carey. Col. Johnson, of Oklahoma City, defended
him, and made an excellent speech in his behalf to the jury. Mr. Ady
also made a fine speech and one that was full of argument and replete
with the details of the crime committed as gathered from the statements
of witnesses. The lawyers who were present and the court officers also
agree that it was one of the best and most logical speeches Mr. Ady
ever made in this court. It was so strong that the friends of Mattox
gave up all hope of any result but conviction. Judge Riner’s instructions
to the jury were very clear and impartial, and required nearly half an
hour for him to read them. When the jury filed out, Mattox seemed to
be the most unconcerned man in the room. His mother was very pale
and her face indicated that she had but very little hope. She is certainly
deserving of a good deal of credit for she has stuck by her son, as only
a mother can, through all his trials and difficulties, and’ this is not the
first one by any means, for Clyde has been tried for his life onca before.
He is a youthful looking man of light build, a beardless face, and a
nervous disposition. The crime for which he has just been tried is the
killing of a colored man in Oklahoma City over two years ago. Nobody
saw him do the killing and the evidence against him is purely circum-
stantial, but very strong, it is claimed, by those who heard all the testi-
mony.”’” 146 U.S. 142-144, 36 L. Ed. 918-19.
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