Page:1887 Compiled Laws of Dakota Territory.pdf/1207

 2. The district attorney, or other counsel for the territory, must open the case and offer the evidence in support of the indictment.

3. The defendant or his counsel may then open his defense, and offer his evidence in support thereof.

4. The parties may then, respectively, offer rebutting testimony only, unless the court, for good reason, in furtherance of justice, or to correct an evident oversight, permit them to offer evidence upon their original case.

5. When the evidence is concluded, unless the case is sub­mitted to the jury on either side, or on both sides, without argument, the counsel for the territory shall commence, and the defendant or his counsel shall follow; then the counsel for the territory shall conclude the argument to the jury.

6. The judge must then charge the jury; he may state the testimony, and must declare the law, but must not charge the jury in respect to matters of fact; such charge must, if so requested, be reduced to writing before it is given, unless by tacit or mutual consent it is given orally, or unless it is fully taken down at the time it is given by a stenographic reporter, appointed by the court.

§ 7371. When the state of the pleadings requires it, or in any other case, for good reasons, and in the sound discretion of the court, the order of trial and argument prescribed in the last section may be departed from.

§ 7372. The court must decide all questions of law which arise in the course of the trial.

§ 7373. On the trial of an indictment for libel, the jury have the right to determine the law and the fact.

§ 7374. On the trial of an indictment for any other offense than libel, questions of law are to be decided by the court, and questions of fact are to be decided by the jury; and, although the jury have the power to find a general verdict, which includes questions of law as well as of fact, they are bound, nevertheless, to receive as law what is laid down as such by the court.

§ 7375. If the indictment is for an offense punishable with death, three counsel on each side may argue the case to the jury. If it is for any other offense the court may, in its discretion, restrict the argument to one counsel on each side.

§ 7376. A defendant in a criminal action is presumed to be innocent until the contrary is proved, and in case of a reasonable doubt as to whether his guilt is satisfactorily shown, he is entitled to be acquitted.

§ 7377. When it appears that a defendant has committed a public offense and there is reasonable ground of doubt in which of two or more degrees he is guilty, he can be convicted of the lowest of such degrees only.

§ 7378. ¥hen two or more defendants are jointly indicted for a felony, any defendant requiring it must be tried separately. In other cases defendants jointly prosecuted may be tried separately or jointly, in the discretion of the court.

§ 7379. When two or more persons are included in the same indictment, the court may, at any ti:tne before the defendants have gone into their defense, on the application of the district at­torney, direct any defendant to be discharged from the indictment, that he may be a witness for the territory.

§ 7380. When two or more persons are included in the same indictment, and the court is of opinion that in regard to a