Page:1887 Compiled Laws of Dakota Territory.pdf/1210

§§ 7398-7405 to have been committed, or in which any other material fact occurred, it may order the jury to be conducted in a body, in the custody of proper officers, to the place, which must be shown to them by a person appointed by the court for that purpose, and the officers must be sworn to suffer no person to speak to or communicate with the jury, nor to do so themselves, on any subject connected with the trial, and to return them into court without unnecessary delay, or at a specified time.

§ 7398. If a juror have any personal kņowledge respecting a fact in controversy in a cause, he must declare it in open court during the trial. If, during the retirement of a jury, a juror declare a fact, which could be evidence in the cause, as of his own knowledge, the jury must return into court. In either of these cases, the juror making the statement must be sworn as a witness and examined in the presence of the parties.

§ 7399. The jurors sworn to try an indictment, may, at any time before the submission of the cause to the jury, in the discretion of the court, be permitted to separate, or to be kept in charge of proper officers. The officers must be sworn to keep the jurors together until the next meeting of the court, to suffer no person to speak to or communicate with them, nor to do so themselves, on any subject connected with the trial, and to return them into court at the next meeting thereof.

§ 7400. The jury must also, at each adjournment of the court, whether permitted to separate or kept in charge of officers, be admonished by the court that it is their duty not to converse among themselves or with any one else on any subject connected with the trial, or to form or express any opinion thereon, until the case is finally submitted to them.

§ 7401. If, before the conclusion of a trial, a juror becomes sick, so as to be unable to perform his duty, the court may order him to be discharged. In that case a new juror may be sworn, and the trial begin anew, or the jury may be discharged, and a new jury then or afterward impaneled.

§ 7402. Upon a trial for murder, the commission of the murder. homicide by the defendant being proved, the burden of proving circumstances of mitigation, or that justify or excuse it, devolves upon him, unless the proof on the part of the prosecution tends to show that the crime committed only amounts to manslaughter, or that the defendant was justifiable or excusable.

§ 7403. Upon a trial for bigamy, it is not necessary to prove either of the marriages by the register, certificate or other record evidence thereof, but the same may be proved by such evidence as is admissible to prove a marriage in other cases, and when the second marriage took place out of this territory, proof of that fact, accompanied with proof of cohabitation thereafter in this territory, is sufficient to sustain the charge.

§ 7404. Upon a trial for forging any bill or note purporting to be the bill or note of an incorporated company or bank, or for passing, or attempting to pass, or having in possession with intent to pass, any such forged bill or note, it is not necessary to prove the incorporation of such bank or company by the charter or act of incorporation, but it may be proved by general reputation, and persons of skill are competent witnesses to prove that such bill or note is forged or counterfeited.

§ 7405. In charging the jury, the court must state to them all matters of law which it thinks necessary for their information in giving their verdict, and if it state the testimony of the