Ponder v. State

The evidence authorized the conviction, and for that reason any discussion of the usual general grounds of the motion for a new trial is useless. However, a Special assignment of error presents a point of great importance, and the determination of the question presented, in our judgment, requires the grant of a new trial. When the jury returned the verdict of guilty the defendant demanded, as was his right, that the jury be polled, and two of the jurors answered that while they consented to the verdict, they did not do so freely and voluntarily. In our judgment the court should have…