Adams v. State

148 S.E. 386, 168 Ga. 530, 1929 Ga. LEXIS 182
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedMay 17, 1929
DocketNo. 6693
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 148 S.E. 386 (Adams v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Adams v. State, 148 S.E. 386, 168 Ga. 530, 1929 Ga. LEXIS 182 (Ga. 1929).

Opinions

Hill, J.

Burley Adams was indicted for the offense of murder by shooting Walter B. Tolbert in the body with a riñe. On the trial of the case the jury returned a verdict of guilty, without recommendation, and the defendant was sentenced to be elec[531]*531trocuted. He made a motion for new trial on the general grounds and eighteen special grounds, which was overruled, and he excepted.

The evidence for the State tended to show that Walter R. Tolbert, a Federal prohibition officer, was shot and killed in Columbia County on February 22,1928. On the day of the homicide Tolbert in company with several officers of Columbia County had raided a still in McDuffie Countjr. Burley Adams with two other men, Schley Walden and Jones Moore, were present at the still when it was discovered by the officers, and all three fled upon their approach. The still was destroyed and the parts thereof were loaded into an automobile. The officers were engaged at thi^ for about an hour and a half. They then started towards Harlem in Columbia County. In the car were Walter R. Tolbert, Wiley Harrison Jr., D. Fuller, and a Mr. Harrison, an uncle of Wiley Harrison Jr. All of these men had assisted in the raid on the still and in its destruction. In the ear on the trip toward Harlem, Harrison Jr. and Tolbert were on the front seat, Tolbert being on the right side and Harrison Jr. on the left side, driving the car. The elder Harrison and Fuller occupied the rear seat. After proceeding along the road from the still-site to a point in Columbia County one or two hundred yards north of a creek known as Boggy Gut Creek, the occupants of the car heard a shot, and stopped the car, thinking that they were being shot at. They commenced to get out of the car, and officers Wiley Harrison Jr. and Fuller returned the fire in the direction from which they thought the other shot was fired. As Tolbert was getting out of the car, with one foot on the ground and the other on the running-board, holding a pistol in his right hand, he was struck by a bullet which entered his body on the left side about twp inches below his collar-bone, penetrated his body from left to right, and came out just under the right shoulder blade. Where the bullet came out the flesh was torn, indicating that the bullet which penetrated Tolbert’s body was a soft or dumdum bullet. After being shot Tolbert walked a few steps to the rear of the car and fell and died in a very short time. Fuller at the same time received a flesh wound in the right arm near the elbow. Fuller testified that the same bullet that penetrated Tolbert’s body wounded him. The officers were unable to tell from which direction came the shots that were fired towards them. After the shooting ceased, Tolbert’s body [532]*532was placed in the automobile and carried to Harlem. No one saw who did the shooting. Adams, the men who were seen with him at the still, and several others were arrested and placed in Richmond County jail at Augusta, where they remained for several days, and until Adams made an alleged confession, first to Charles Redding, the United States District Attorney, in the presence of Gary Whittle, the Richmond County jailer. This confession was subsequently taken down in shorthand by the court reporter of the Augusta Circuit, and then written out on a typewriter, as it appears attached to the brief of the evidence in this case.

On the trial Adams contended, in his statement to the jury, that Redding told him: “I have got forty men here. If jmu will come clean and tell us where this rifle is, we won’t try this in the Federal court. We will put it down to the State court.” He said, “These forty men, I am going to take them and going to find that rifle if I have to search every inch of your premises in that country,” etc. He said, “Now I know, with respect to your wife and mother, you. don’t want this done. I wouldn’t, and if you will tell us where the rifle is, me myself and Mr. Whittle will go and get the rifle, and none but us two.” “So,” stated the accused, “I told him where the rifle was, and made the statement that I did.” After Adams made the statement to Redding, all the other persons who had been put in jail in connection with the homicide of Tolbert were released, Adams alone being held and put upon trial. At the time Tolbert was killed the officers did not know who killed him. No one had been seen shooting at the time it occurred. Adams subsequently made a statement or confession. He admitted having shot at the man, but let his statement or confession made to the United States District Attorney and to Whittle, the jailer, speak for itself. Redding, the U. S. District Attorney, on direct examination testified at the trial, as follows:

“In the investigation of this case I finally went to see Burley Adams in his cell at the jail. Mr. Whittle was with me. That was after we had worked on the case, after we had undertaken to go through every theory that had been advanced, and after we had gone to the scene of the shooting and had virtually reached our own conclusion about it. After that was done I went to the cell with Gary Whittle. I did not go at any time prior to that to have a talk with Burley Adams. I have had only one conversation [533]*533with Burley Adams, and that was the time. At the time I talked to Burley Adams I did not offer him in any respect any hope of reward for any statement he would make. 'I did not put him under any fear of punishment or coercion of any character whatsoever. I did not do it by suggestion. His statement was made to me and Gary Whittle absolutely voluntarily. Mr. Whittle and I went to his cell, and at first he sought to cast suspicion on a person to whom he first referred as ‘Old man J. J.’ and then later he told us that the man’s name was Jules Zachry, and stated that if we would let him go and take an automobile he would show us just exactly how this thing was done by Zachry; and Mr. Whittle then, as I recall the way the conversation occurred, began asking him about this Winchester riñe — as to whether or not he owned one and what he had done with it. He denied that he had owned a Winchester rifle. Mr. Whittle kept asking him questions as .to what had become of it. He continued to evade the question and to deny it. I then took up the line of questioning and said to him, ‘Now, Burley, what we want to know is who was in this thing with you. We have a number of people in jail and we do not want to keep people in jail unnecessarily. Now, as far as you are concerned, we know that you were at the still. We know that you went home and got your gun, and we know that the shot was fired from the hill at the automobile as it came up the incline. We have traced the bullet, and we found one empty shell, a 30-30. We have also found a few shells that were used by you at target practice in the town of Harlem last week, and so we know that you had a 30-30 Winchester.’ I said, ‘Now, as far as you are concerned, it doesn’t make any difference to us what you say about yourself. We are satisfied with the evidence we have against you, but what we want to know is who else was involved in this thing with you.’ He said, ‘Why, I was by myself all that day.’ I said, ‘Well, Burlejq we know that you. were not at the still by yourself, because we know who was there with you,’ and I named the persons. ‘We know that you went to the house by yourself. We know that you left the house by yourself, but we want to know if 3rou met any one and if any one assisted you in this work that you did.’ He continued to evade the question as best he could, and finally he said, ‘Well, I might as well tell you the truth. There was nobody with me.’- I said, ‘There was nobody with you [534]

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198 Ga. 410 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1944)
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154 S.E. 700 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1930)

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Bluebook (online)
148 S.E. 386, 168 Ga. 530, 1929 Ga. LEXIS 182, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adams-v-state-ga-1929.