Stockwell v. State

The amended motion for new trial alleged that the newspaper article appeared after the jurors had been examined on voir dire and some of those taken on the jury the next morning read it; and that after the jury had retired to deliberate one juror asked the others if they had read the article “in the paper last night” and several answered in the affirmative.

The trial court properly held that, assuming such allegations to be true, a new trial would not be called for.

At most the allegations of the motion for new trial and the juror’s affidavit show a casual reference to the existence of the…