Stephen Johnson Field

“ You are further instructed that you cannot find the defendant guilty unless, from all the evidence, you believe him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The court further charges you that a reasonable doubt is a doubt based on reason, and which is reasonable in view of all the evidence. ”

“ It was a conclusion of fact, which he would naturally draw from the examination of the wound. It was not expert testimony in the strict sense of the term, but a statement of a conclusion of fact, such as men who use their senses constantly draw from what they see and hear in the daily concerns of life. Connecticut Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Lathrop, 111 U.S. 612-620, 4 Sup. Ct. Rep. 533. But, independently of this consideration, as to the admissibility of the evidence, if it was erroneously admitted, its subsequent withdrawal from the case, with the accompanying instruction, cured the error. ”

“ Upon this testimony, the court was of opinion that he was a competent juror, and accordingly the challenge was disallowed. In this ruling we see no error. The juror was then peremptorily challenged by the defendant, and was excused. That act also provides, in section 242, that a challenge for implied bias may be taken for all or any of the following causes, and for no other: (1) Consanguinity or affinity within the fourth degree to the person alleged to be injured by the offense charged, or on whose complaint the prosecution was instituted, or to the defendant. ”

“ It is only necessary that you should have that certainty with which you should transact your own most important concerns in life.' No doubt the question before you to-day-involving as it does the life of the prisoner at the bar must be deemed to be of the highest importance ”

“ Having been one of the jury formerly sworn to try the same indictment, and whose verdict was set aside, or which was discharged without a verdict, after the case was submitted to it. (7) Having served as a juror in a civil action brought against the defendant for the act charged as an offense. (8) Having formed or expressed an unqualified opinion or belief that the prisoner is guilty or not guilty of the offense charged. (9) If the offense charged be punishable with death, the entertaining of such conscientious opinions as would preclude his finding the defendant guilty ”

“ All that is required in such cases is that the witnesses should be able to properly make the observations, the result of which they give; and the confidence bestowed on their conclusions will depend upon the extent and completeness of their examination, and the ability with which it is made. ”

“ People
The defendant below, the plaintiff in error here, Frederick Hopt, was indicted in the district court of the Third judicial district of Utah, in December, 1880, for the murder of John F. Turner on the third of the preceding July. He was four times convicted in that court, upon this indictment, of murder in the first degree. The judgment of death pronounced against him on each previous conviction was reversed by this court. The decisions are found in 104 U.S. 631; 110 U.S. 574, 4 Sup. Ct. Rep. 202; and 114 U.S. 488, 5 Sup. Ct. Rep. 972. The last conviction took place in September, 1885. ”

“ Persons of spec ulative minds may in almost every such case suggest possibilities of the truth being different from that established by the most convincing proof. The jurors are not to be led away by speculative notions at to such possibilities. ”