Kramer

Appeal by defendant from a judgment convicting him of forgery, from an order refusing to arrest the judgment, and from an order denying a new trial.

1. The first objection urged is misconduct of the jury; but the record does not clearly disclose that any such in fact occurred. It is stated in an affidavit by defendant’s counsel, filed on the motion for a new trial, that during the taking of evidence, and while the jury were examining certain exhibits submitted for their inspection, affiants “ saw a number of the jurors commenting upon, and arguing about,” the exhibits, and pointing out to each other similarities in the handwriting,” etc.; but these statements are positively denied in an affidavit by all the jurors, who state that they were not arguing nor discussing the exhibits, nor the similarity of the writing therein; and the statement of the facts of the incident by the judge is, in substance, that he saw the whole transaction; that he observed the jurors conversing, and at once stopped them and admonished them against discussing the evidence until they retired to the juryroom; but that he could not tell what their conversation was about, and he saw nothing which induced him…