Hulsey v. State

159 S.E. 270, 172 Ga. 797, 1931 Ga. LEXIS 212
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedJune 10, 1931
DocketNo. 8036
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 159 S.E. 270 (Hulsey 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
Hulsey v. State, 159 S.E. 270, 172 Ga. 797, 1931 Ga. LEXIS 212 (Ga. 1931).

Opinion

Atkinson, J.

On the afternoon of June 18, 1930, Lige Harper, Ernest McCullough, and Clifford Jones were killed by pistol shots in Polk County near the residence of William Hulsey. During the ensuing night their bodies were carried in a wagon to a secluded, place several miles away, and cast head foremost into an abandoned well. On the following day the bodies were discovered, and a coroner’s inquest was held. William Hulsey, his two married sons Fred and Bay, his son-in-law Tom Hicks, and L. E. McCullough were arrested and confined in jail, the two first named in an adjoining county. The next regular term of court would convene on the fourth Monday in August. On June 22 an attorney was called by telephone from Atlanta. At a conference then held it was agreed that the attorney would represent William and Ered Hulsey if an indictment should be found against them. The attorney stated at the time that he thought that if an indictment should be found against them it would be at the regular August term. On July 3 the attorney went again to see the Hulseys, at which time they informed him “there was no use employing a lawyer and paying him unless there was a bill found against them.” On July 5 the judge called a special term of court to convene July 14, “for the trial of criminal business,” and ordered the grand jury “sworn and serving at the February term, 1930,” to reconvene on July 11 “for the disposition of such business as may come before them.” On the same day the judge wrote to the attorney, informing him of the call of the special term, and stated: “If you so desire, I can have the prisoners here on Saturday the 12tli inst.j so that the case may be formally sounded. You will be given [799]*799all assistance at that time to have witnesses present on Monday following.” The attorney was finally employed and was paid his fee on Friday, July 11. When the grand jury reconvened three true bills were returned on July 11, against William and Fred Hulsey, charging them jointly with the separate murders of Harper, McCullough, and Jones. The case for murder of Jones was called for trial on July 14, and the defendants filed their motion for a continuance -to the regular August term. The motion was overruled, and the defendants excepted pendente lite. When the panel of jurors from which a jury was to be selected was about to be put upon the defendants they filed a challenge to the array. This was overruled, and the defendants again excepted pendente lite. On the trial they were both' convicted and given the death penalty. Their motion for a new trial on general and special grounds was overruled, and they excepted, assigning error on that ruling and on the rulings excepted to pendente lite.

The grounds of the motion for a continuance were positively sworn to by both of the defendants. In one of these it was alleged substantially: “There is prevalent in this county a degree of excitement against these defendants, as a result of the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the killing of the deceased and Lige Harper and Ernest McCullough at the same time, which renders it unsafe for these defendants to go to trial at this term of court. . . The killing of these three persons aroused such extraordinary excitement in the minds of the people of this county that it influenced the calling of this special term of this court and the recalling of the February term grand jury within a few days after said homicides were committed, for the sole main purpose of placing these defendants and the other persons charged with said killings upon immediate trial before said excitement should have an opportunity to subside. . . The regular semi-annual term of this court would have convened by law on the fourth Monday in August, 1930, just six weeks after this term convened, and . . the trial of these defendants on this indictment at that term would . . serve the ends of justice. . . It is unfair to these defendants to require them to stand trial on said indictment at this term, called and held within twenty-six days after said homicides were committed, while popular excitement against them is extraordinarily great, and at a time when such popular excitement is likely . . to cause these [800]*800defendants to be convicted by a jury of citizens who have become prejudiced against these defendants as a result of widespread public discussions of the alleged circumstances of the killings in the highways and byways of the county. . .. A more atrocious crime was never committed in this county than the killing of these three persons. . . The fact that three men were killed and their bodies hidden in an abandoned well would have created such an extraordinary degree of public excitement is self-evident, and that such excitement should be against these defendants because of their association with the three deceased persons immediately preceding their death was a foregone conclusion in view of the attendant circumstances involving liquor, home-brew and gambling, the shooting of these men from the rear, and the use of one of these defendants’ wagon in disposing of the bodies. Defendants offer, as evidence of the extraordinary public excitement against them which makes it unsafe for them to go to trial at this term of court, certain news items and editorials which were published and widely circulated throughout this county by the Rockmart News, Roekmart, Georgia, a weekly newspaper published near the scene of the homicides, as follows: news article entitled 'Three Mutilated Bodies Found in Well,’ published and circulated . . on the 19th day of June, 1930; also news article entitled 'Five Under Arrest,’ said news article having been published and circulated . . on the 26th day of June, 1930; also an editorial entitled 'Menace,’ said editorial having been published and circulated . . on the 26th day of June, 1930; and an editorial entitled 'Why, Of Course,’ . . said editorial having been published and circulated . . on the 3d day of July, 1930. [The several articles were set out as exhibits to this ground of the motion to continue.] Defendants aver that said news articles contain matter unjustly harmful and prejudicial to the defendants, that they are villifying and untruthful, and the inferences necessarily to be drawn from them and actually drawn from them by a large number of citizens of this county eligible for service upon a jury in this court would so tend to prejudice them against these defendants that it is unsafe for them to go upon their trial so soon after the commission of said homicides and the inflaming of the public mind against them by said news articles and editorials, and has made it almost impossible for them to secure a fair and impartial trial on this charge. Defendants aver that [801]*801tlie principles of justice require a postponement of this trial to the August term, 1930, of this court.”

There was no evidence of the existence of public excitement other than the sworn allegations of the ground of the motion. In Maddox v. State; 33 Ga. 581, it was said by Jenkins, J.: “It is. alleged that the court below erred in refusing to continue the case, upon the showing made by the defendant. This showing presents two causes for continuance. 1st. The recent commission of the homicide charged (less than two months having elapsed between the killing and the trial), and the prevalence of a degree of excitement in the county against the accused, which rendered it unsafe for him to go to trial at that term of the court. . . This latter requisition, however, was subsequently abandoned by the-court, and the continuance on this ground refused upon the authority of a decision of this court in the case of Thompson v. The State, 24 Ga. R. 297.

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Bluebook (online)
159 S.E. 270, 172 Ga. 797, 1931 Ga. LEXIS 212, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hulsey-v-state-ga-1931.