Carroll

I dissent. The court erred, I think, in permitting the prosecution to show that the defendant had asked a police-officer whether the charge could be reduced to petty larceny. (Wharton’s Crim. Ev., sec. 655; State v. Emerson, 48 Iowa, 172 .)

I think the court erred in excluding the question asked by defendants in the cross-examination of the prosecuting witness, Loo Goon.

The defendants were convicted of robbery, and appeal from the judgment, from an order denying a new trial, and from an order denying a motion in arrest of judgment.

The main point made by appellants is, that the original information was altered after arraignment and plea, and before trial. The facts are, that the information charged the appellants and also one John Murphy. It appears that afterwards the information was withdrawn as against Murphy, and that some one connected with the court erased the words “ and John Murphy,” and the word “ and,” where it occurred in another place, by drawing a black line through the same. This was certainly an unauthorized and dangerous act; and if it did not appear clearly what the alterations were, and that they could not have prejudiced or injured appellants, the consequence might have been serious. But as the alterations clearly appear, and as they could not “ have actually prejudiced defendants, or tended to their prejudice in respect to a substantial right,” they are not good grounds for a reversal of the judgment, no matter how censurable the act of making them. We hope, however, that this case will not be taken as a precedent for similar…