Hardin v. State

355 S.W.2d 105, 210 Tenn. 116, 1962 Tenn. LEXIS 399
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 7, 1962
StatusPublished
Cited by59 cases

This text of 355 S.W.2d 105 (Hardin v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hardin v. State, 355 S.W.2d 105, 210 Tenn. 116, 1962 Tenn. LEXIS 399 (Tenn. 1962).

Opinions

Mr. Justice Burnett

delivered the opinion of the Court.

Hardin, a white man, thirty-nine years of age, was indicted for second degree murder for killing with an automobile, and for driving while under the influence of an intoxicant. He was found guilty of both charges and sentenced to not more than ten years on the homicide charge and fined $10.00 and sentenced to eleven months and twenty-nine days on the driving while drunk charge. He has seasonably appealed and filed many assignments of error supported by an eighty page brief. Arguments have been heard. We now have the matter, after spending several days reading this large record, authorities, briefs, etc., for disposition.

[121]*121The case depends entirely upon circumstantial evidence to establish both the corpus delicti and the criminal agency of the accused. In a drunk driving case and a homicide committed in the act thereof depending upon circumstantial evidence, it is no different from any other fact case wherein circumstantial evidence is necessary for conviction. In Marable v. State, 203 Tenn. 440, 313 S.W.2d 451, we attempted at some length to set forth the necessary rules to be followed in establishing a case on circumstantial evidence. Briefly, it is necessary in such a case that all the essential facts must be consistent with the hypothesis of guilt, that is to be compared with all other facts proved; that the facts must exclude every other reasonable theory or hypothesis except that of guilt; and the facts must establish such a certainty of guilt of the accused as to convince the mind beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused is the one who committed the offense.

These facts must be proved so as to satisfy the jury, beyond a reasonable doubt, of all the facts necessary to constitute the crime charged before a verdict of guilty is justified. Such facts must be of such a conclusive nature and tendency, leading on the whole, to a satisfactory conclusion and producing in effect a moral certainty that the accused, and no one else, committed the offense. In considering a case thus the weight of this circumstantial evidence is a question for the jury who likewise are the ones to determine whether or not the inferences to be drawn from such evidence, and the circumstances surrounding them, are consistent with guilt and inconsistent with innocence.

[122]*122What is meant by reasonable donbt in the mind of the jnry is that donbt which may be engendered by an investigation of all the proof and the reasonable inferences to be drawn therefrom, and after considering such an inability to let their mind rest easily upon the certainty of guilt. Reasonable donbt does not mean a doubt that may arise from a possibility. Absolute certainty of guilt is not demanded by the law to convict of a criminal charge, but moral certainty is required, and this certainty is required as to every proposition of proof requisite to constitute the offense.

From these preliminary remarks as to the requisites in a ease of the kind it naturally follows that a rather detailed statement of facts is necessary.

Just shortly before 11:00 o’clock at night on May 19, 1960, a white lady, fifty-two years of age, was struck by an automobile at the intersection of Jackson Avenue and Breedlove Street in Memphis, and died within a few minutes as a result of the injuries sustained.

It is shown that the deceased and another lady boarded a streetcar in downtown Memphis and got off of this streetcar at Jackson Avenue and Breedlove Street in Memphis, about 10:55 and not later than 10:57 P.M. on this night. The light being green in the direction in which the deceased was traveling, she walked across the street and when she had gotten nearly to the curb on the opposite side a 1956 or 1957 Ford going down this street struck her and knocked her up in the air over the front of the car almost to the other side of the street. The other lady who got off the streetcar with the deceased was standing on the corner waiting for the light to change so that she could walk across in another direction. She [123]*123saw the accident and testifies that she saw a red and white 1956 or ’57 Ford coming down the street at a rather reasonable rate of speed until it got within a few feet of the deceased when it suddenly speeded up and struck the deceased as above stated, which caused her death. After the Ford struck the deceased it proceeded on down the street in the direction in which it was going at a very rapid rate of speed.

This lady, who was standing on the street and saw the accident, says that the car that struck the deceased was red and white — red with a narrow white strip down the side; and that it had the same appearance as the picture of the plaintiff in error’s car. The plaintiff in error’s car was black on the bottom with a white strip running down the side and black on top. This witness said that she could not identify the person who was driving this car hut there was only one person in the car and he appeared to he in his forties, having “peppery gray hair ’ ’ with a receding hairline, and that he was wearing a light blue shirt. At the time of this accident the car that struck the deceased was the only one within sight on either street.

Another lady, who was driving west on Jackson Avenue (the car that struck the deceased was driving north on Breedlove) and was about a half a block away from the intersection, stated that she saw the car hit an object which she first thought was a dog. She thought the car was entirely black. This lady notified the police who soon arrived.

About three stores from the intersection (apparently the fronts of these stores are rather narrow) on the south side of Jackson Avenue was a restaurant. This [124]*124restaurant was about a half a block away from the intersection of these streets where this accident happened. This restaurant had a parking space on both sides of the driveway at the rear connecting the parking areas. It had three entrances. There was also an alley or open area which runs from this restaurant behind the other buildings on that end of the block and enters Breedlove a hundred feet south of the intersection where the deceased was struck. The parking area around this restaurant, the driveway, and the alley leading to Breedlove (Breedlove is the street on which the car was traveling which struck this woman) at the time of the homicide were surfaced with sand and gravel.

There are two witnesses in this record who testify that between 10:30 and 11:00 o ’clock on this night they were in this restaurant along with the wife of the owner when the plaintiff in error entered from a door on the west side of the restaurant. They say the plaintiff in error had in his pocket a paper sack which appeared to contain a bottle of whiskey, and when he came in he asked for a chaser and a glass of ice; that after the wife of the owner looked at her husband, the husband told her not to serve him and told the man, the plaintiff in error, that he already had enough and they would not serve him a chaser for any more liquor. When the plaintiff in error took the witness stand herein he admitted that he had had a few drinks and that he had this bottle of liquor in his pocket and that he was denied this chaser at this restaurant.

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Bluebook (online)
355 S.W.2d 105, 210 Tenn. 116, 1962 Tenn. LEXIS 399, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hardin-v-state-tenn-1962.