Summary
concluding criminal prosecution was not “pending” against juror where once-active prosecution was transferred to absentee docket, and where only affirmative act by the state would revive prosecution
Summary of this case from Hampton v. StateOpinion
January 4, 1944 Rehearing Denied January 25, 1944
An appeal from the Criminal Court of Record for Duval County, Bryan Simpson, Judge.
Waybright Waybright, for appellant.
J. Tom Watson, Attorney General, John C. Wynn, Assistant Attorney General, and Bourke Floyd, Special Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.
In this case the question is presented whether one of the jurors was disqualified or subject to challenge because there was a criminal prosecution pending against him. The juror answered that there was no criminal prosecution pending against him. The question was raised on motion for a new trial and it appears from the record that several years prior a prosecution was pending against the juror and the case was transferred to the absentee docket where it remained at the time of this trial. The trial court held that after the case was transferred to the absentee docket, then the prosecution was no longer pending; that only an affirmative act by the state would revive the prosecution. We find this ruling free of error.
We might add also that the verdict was not void and the error, if any, was harmless under Sec. 54.26, Fla. Stat. 1941.
All other questions have been duly considered and finding them without merit the judgment is affirmed.
BUFORD, C. J., TERRELL and CHAPMAN, JJ., concur.