Evans v. State

150 S.E.2d 240, 222 Ga. 392, 1966 Ga. LEXIS 494
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedJuly 7, 1966
Docket23475
StatusPublished
Cited by68 cases

This text of 150 S.E.2d 240 (Evans 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
Evans v. State, 150 S.E.2d 240, 222 Ga. 392, 1966 Ga. LEXIS 494 (Ga. 1966).

Opinions

Mobley, Justice.

Alex S. Evans was jointly indicted with Vernon Eugene Williams by the grand jury of Gwinnett County for the murder of Jerry Everett by shooting him with a pistol on the 17th day of April, 1964. Williams was first placed on trial, asked for severance, was tried separately, and found guilty of murder as charged in the indictment. His conviction was affirmed by this court in Williams v. State, 222 Ga. 208 (149 SE2d 449). The defendant, Evans, was then tried, was found guilty of murder, as charged, and was sentenced to death. The appeal is from that judgment and sentence. He enumerates as error the overruling of his motion for new trial on the general ground that the evidence is insufficient to support the verdict, and enumerates 26 additional errors.

After the decision of this court in Williams v. State, supra, companion case to this case, this court requested appellant to file a supplemental brief stating which, if any, of the errors enumerated in this case are controlled by rulings made in the [394]*394Williams case. In response thereto counsel filed a supplemental brief in which they concede that enumerations of error number 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 24 are controlled adversely to his contentions by the decision in the Williams case, although he does not concede the correctness of such rulings. Such rulings in Williams are controlling on the above errors enumerated and will not be considered further.

Enumerated errors number 11, 12, and 13, complaining respectively of the State failing to furnish the defendant with a list of the names of the witnesses upon whose testimony the charges against him are based other than those listed on the indictment, the denial of his motion to quash the indictment, because the evidence produced before the grand jury was hearsay and no evidence of probative value showing the guilt of defendant was produced, and the denial of his motion to quash without hearing evidence, are without merit.

The furnishing of the names of the witnesses who appeared before the grand jury against a defendant in a criminal case meets the requirements of Art. I, Sec. I, Par. V (Code Ann. § 2-105) that “Every person charged with an offense against the laws of this State . . . shall be furnished, on demand, with a copy of the accusation, and a list of the witnesses' on whose testimony the charge against him is founded . ." Keener v. State, 18 Ga. 194 (2); Inman v. State, 72 Ga. 269 (1); Lewis v. State, 101 Ga. 532 (28 SE 970); Palmer v. State, 23 Ga. App. 84 (1) (97 SE 460). As to enumerations 12 and 13 it has never been the practice in this State for the court to engage in an investigation as to whether the evidence before a grand jury was sufficient to warrant an indictment. Williams v. State, 222 Ga. 208, supra (2); Buchanan v. State, 215 Ga. 791 (113 SE2d 609).

Appellant in enumeration 2 alleges error in charging that, “Slight evidence from an extraneous source identifying the accused as a participator in the criminal act will be sufficient corroboration of an accomplice to support a verdict.” This court in Chapman v. State, 109 Ga. 157 (4) (34 SE 369) held that in the trial of a criminal case where the State relied upon evidence of an accomplice and claimed that it had been corroborated, it [395]*395was error to give substantially this same charge, pointing out that, while the charge is a correct statement of the law, it is not a proper charge, for it is for the jury to determine whether the evidence of the accomplice is corroborated. There, the court observed that the language used may have had a tendency to mislead the jury to infer that if the testimony of the accomplice was corroborated by any evidence, however slight, it was their duty to convict, “especially as the court did not in the same connection caution the jury with the further instruction that such corroboration, whether in their opinion slight or strong, considered in connection with the other evidence, should be sufficient to satisfy the jury of the guilt of the accused beyond a reasonable doubt.”

This court in Rawlins v. State, 124 Ga. 31 (16) (52 SE 1) at p. 49, in considering a similar charge as that in Chapman v. State, 109 Ga. 157, supra, at p. 164, held that the charge was not error where “. . . the judge distinctly charged the jury more than once that the testimony of an accomplice uncorroborated was not sufficient to convict. He also charged fully upon the law of reasonable doubt, and the extract from the charge above quoted, when taken in connection with the entire charge, was not calculated to mislead the jury in regard to the amount of corroboration required. He tells them in terms that it is a question for them to determine and they are to consider the corroboration, whether it be strong or slight; and the effect of the charge is simply to state that it is for the jury to determine whether the corroboration was of such a character as to satisfy their minds.”

Here, the trial judge charged more fully on corroboration of an accomplice than was charged in Rawlins v. State, 124 Ga. 31, supra, and that “. . . the determination of the existence of any corroborating evidence, the determination of its sufficiency, if any exists, and the weight and credit to be given the testimony of any accomplice, if corroborated, are all matters for you under the rules given you in charge.” This ground is without merit.

Enumeration 3 alleges the court erred in giving the following charge: “If you find that there was a conspiracy, and that [396]*396the act charged in this indictment grew therefrom, and that the defendant participated in the common intent and purpose of the conspiracy, and that it was an unlawful act that was contemplated, then he would be responsible for the acts of the other persons with whom he conspired, even — he would be responsible, Gentlemen of the Jury, for all acts and declarations of the other persons with whom he conspired.” The complaint is that the charge fails to limit the acts and declarations of other persons or conspirators for which Evans could be held responsible as a conspirator. Just prior to this charge, the court defined conspiracy and, while not immediately following, charged explicitly that, if a conspiracy is established, declarations or acts by any of the conspirators during the pendency of the criminal enterprise are admissible in evidence against any member of the conspiracy, but that acts or declarations made after the conspiracy has ended are only admissible against the one making them or doing the acts. We are of the opinion that this charge when considered in context with the entire charge on the question of conspiracy is correct and sufficient in the absence of a request for a more detailed charge on the question. Jackson v. State, 219 Ga. 819 (6) (136 SE2d 375). Ground 3 is without merit.

Appellant in enumeration 4 contends that the following charge was error: “In other words the corroboration must be not only to the effect that the crime was actually committed by someone, but must almost — also must be such as to connect the defendant with the criminal act.” It is clear that the use of the word “almost” was a slip of the tongue and that the judge immediately substituted the word “also” for “almost.” This ground is therefore without merit.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

GONZALES v. the STATE.
812 S.E.2d 638 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2018)
Goulding v. the State
780 S.E.2d 1 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2015)
State v. Lucious
518 S.E.2d 677 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1999)
Jones v. State
453 S.E.2d 716 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1995)
Foster v. State
639 So. 2d 1263 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1994)
Thrasher v. State
398 S.E.2d 850 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1990)
Lee v. State
374 S.E.2d 199 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1988)
Chews v. State
371 S.E.2d 124 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1988)
State v. Rivenbark
533 A.2d 271 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 1987)
Harris v. State
339 S.E.2d 712 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1986)
Rivenbark v. State
504 A.2d 647 (Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, 1986)
State v. Caldero
705 P.2d 85 (Idaho Court of Appeals, 1985)
Kennedy v. State
323 S.E.2d 169 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1984)
Kesler v. Veal
300 S.E.2d 217 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1983)
Gay v. State
294 S.E.2d 476 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1982)
State v. Garcia
630 P.2d 665 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1981)
Hardy v. State
264 S.E.2d 209 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1980)
State v. DeWitt
286 N.W.2d 379 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1979)
Smith v. State
262 S.E.2d 116 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1979)
Gunter v. State
256 S.E.2d 341 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1979)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
150 S.E.2d 240, 222 Ga. 392, 1966 Ga. LEXIS 494, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/evans-v-state-ga-1966.