Bone v. State

62 So. 455, 8 Ala. App. 59, 1913 Ala. App. LEXIS 124
CourtAlabama Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 15, 1913
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 62 So. 455 (Bone v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Alabama Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bone v. State, 62 So. 455, 8 Ala. App. 59, 1913 Ala. App. LEXIS 124 (Ala. Ct. App. 1913).

Opinion

PELHAM, J.

— The orders of the court setting the ease for trial and providing for copies of the indictment add jury lists to be served on the defendant are in all particulars as required by statute. — Acts 1909, p. 319. The defendant’s objection that the language used in the order requiring the list of the regular jurors drawn and summoned for “the week during which the defendant’s trial is set” to be served on the defendant, not being a compliance with the statute providing that those jurors specially drawn to[66]*66gether with “the regular jurors drawn and summoned for the week set for the trial” shall constitute the venire from which the jury to try the defendant shall be selected, is hypercritical. The wording used in the order is practically the exact language of the statute, which provides that the court must enter an order causing a list of the names of all jurors summoned “for the week in which the trial is set,” etc., to be served on the defendant. — Acts 1909, p. 319. The record affirmatively shows that the proper lists were served on the defendant in obedience to the order of the court.

The defendant’s motion to quash the venire because there was a mistake in the name of the juror Whatley, as it apepared on the list served on the defendant, is not sufficient on which to base a motion to quash the venire. —Acts 1909, § 32, p. 320; Longmire v. State, 130 Ala. 66, 30 South. 413.

The defendant’s objection to having the juror What-ley put upon him because his name was not on the list of jurors served upon him was removed, for it appears that this juror was challenged by the state for cause before the parties were required to strike the jury from the list furnished for that purpose in the trial of the case. No prejudice resulted to the defendant from having the name of this juror on the list prepared from which the jury was to be selected by striking, although his name was not on the list served upon the defendant, for his name Ayas stricken from the list before the parties Avere required to strike. — White v. State, Infra., 62 South. 454.

The examination of the juror on his A’oir dire is not set out, and the court may presume in support of the correctness of the ruling of the trial court, in the absence of anything to the contrary, that a ground for challenge for cause developed on the examination.

[67]*67Tbe exception to striking tbe juror and eliminating bis name from tbe list on tbe objection of tbe defendant can avail tbe defendant nothing as a predicate for reversible error. A party cannot tbns blow bot and cold by inviting an action and then objecting to it.

Tbe declaration made by tbe defendant as be left tbe deceased’s place of business immediately after tbe shooting was admissible, and tbe court properly admitted it. It was a declaration in tbe nature of an admission, and also part of-the res gestae,.

There was no prejudicial error of which tbe defendant can complain in tbe court’s permitting tbe state to prove by the witness Turner that be carried tbe defendant away with him from tbe scene of a former difficulty between tbe defendant and tbe deceased some two hours before tbe fatal rencounter.

Tbe defendant’s offering to show on cross-examination by the state’s witness Turner that in a former difficulty between the parties tbe deceased drew a pistol on tbe defendant was nothing more than an attempt to prove tbe details of a. former difficulty, and tbe testimony was not permissible for that reason. Besides, tbe witness subsequently, upon being recalled, testified to this fact without objection.

Tbe child Lonnie Walker, on bis voir dire examination, testified that “God made him, that if be were to tell something that was not so be would go to tbe bad man, that if be did right, when be died, be would be saved,” and bis testimony as set out shows considerable capacity for understanding in one of seven years of age. There is no particular age recognized in this state at which a witness of tender years may, in all cases,. be pronounced legally competent or incompetent to testify. A child of seven years of age has been held to be competent to testify as a witness in a case where on her ex-[68]*68animation voir dire she shows an intelligent comprehension of the belief that a falsehood is morally wrong and that furture punishment will follow as a consequence. — McGuff v. State, 88 Ala. 147, 7 South. 35, 16 Am. St. Rep. 25. We think the voir dire examination of the witness Lonnie Walker disclosed an intelligent comprehension of the belief in the wrong of falsehood and a sufficient belief in the future state of reward and punishment to make him competent to testify, and that the court did not err in receiving his testimony.— Grimes v. State, 105 Ala. 86, 17 South. 184; Williams v. State, 109 Ala. 64, 19 South. 530.

The defendant’s witness Ballard was allowed to state that when the defendant came into the deceased’s place of business, where the fatal difficulty almost immediately took place, the defendant seemed to be “as pleasing as I ever saw him,” that he did not appear mad, and that he spoke in a friendly manner and made no effort to raise the shotgun that he carried down by his side until “grabbed” by a third party, one Harbin; and the court cannot be put in error for refusing to allow the defendant to go further and ask the witness if there was anything threatening in the defendant’s manner when he came in, and if he made any demonstration. Whether or not the defendant made any demonstration was susceptible of proof by the facts going to show a demonstration, and these facts could have been, elicited by proper questions calling for them, and the witness had already been allowed to testify to matters covering the question as to there being anything threatening in defendant’s manner when he entered the place.

No grounds were stated for the motion to exclude the statement of the witness Turner, “When he is drinking he is pretty wild,” and this testimony may have been given in response to a question calling directly for it, to [69]*69which no objection was interposed. An objection to the question propounded should be shown. — Ala. Con. C. & I. Co. v. Heald, 171 Ala. 263, 55 South. 181. The defendant was shown to have been drinking at the time he killed the deceased, and his disposition when drinking was relevant.

The court cannot be put in error for refusing to allow the defendant to cross-examine the witness Turner in regard to the witness Murphy’s relations with the deceased, even if the questions were competent, and we do not think they Avere, for the questions to which objections were sustained were asked the witness Turner upon his having been recalled by the defendant for the purpose of further cross-examination, after he had been examined in chief and on cross, and it was in the discretion of the court to permit or refuse further cross-examination.

The numerous other rulings on the evidence to which exceptions are shown to have been reserved are not insisted upon or discussed in argument or brief of counsel for defendant, and we find nothing in them meriting discussion.

Requested charges 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7, refused to the defendant, are argumentative or invade the province of the jury as referred to the facts set out in the bill of exceptions..

It is the duty of trial courts to conform their rulings to the holdings of the Supreme Court and of this court. The refusal of the court to give charge No.

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140 So. 585 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1932)
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117 So. 505 (Alabama Court of Appeals, 1928)
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101 So. 907 (Alabama Court of Appeals, 1924)
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101 So. 312 (Alabama Court of Appeals, 1924)
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
62 So. 455, 8 Ala. App. 59, 1913 Ala. App. LEXIS 124, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bone-v-state-alactapp-1913.