Schafer v State

Schafer v State
1911 OK CR 128
115 P. 379
5 Okl.Cr. 598
Case Number: Green v. State (Two Cases).
Decided: 05/09/1911
Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals

(Syllabus by the Court.)

JURY Number of Jurors Superior Courts.

Appeals from Superior Court, Logan County; J.M. Sandlin, Judge.

Charles Schafer and others were convicted of violating the prohibition law, and they appeal. Reversed and remanded, with directions.

F.H. McGuire, for plaintiffs in error.

Smith C. Matson, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

PER CURIAM. The plaintiffs in error in each of the above-entitled causes were informed against, tried, and convicted in the superior court of Logan county for violations of the prohibition law.

The trial in each case was had before a jury composed of only six jurors, and the question presented on each appeal is whether a defendant, over his objection, can be lawfully placed upon trial in a superior court for a misdemeanor before a jury of six men. The record shows that in each case an objection was interposed by defendants and the demand made for trial before a jury of twelve men.

This question has heretofore been passed upon by this court

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in the case of Tillie Hill v. State, 3 Okla. Cr. 686, 109 P. 291, wherein it was held that:

"Under the Constitution twelve men constitute a jury in the superior courts in all cases. In civil cases and misdemeanors it requires the concurrence of at least nine jurors to render a verdict, and in felony cases the concurrence of the full twelve."

The court therefore erred in overruling the demand of plaintiffs in error for a jury of twelve men.