Humber v. State

108 So. 646, 21 Ala. App. 378, 1926 Ala. App. LEXIS 149
CourtAlabama Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 19, 1926
Docket4 Div. 57.
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 108 So. 646 (Humber 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
Humber v. State, 108 So. 646, 21 Ala. App. 378, 1926 Ala. App. LEXIS 149 (Ala. Ct. App. 1926).

Opinion

BRICKEN, P. J.

This is the second appeal in this case. See Humber v. State, 19 Ala. App. 451, 99 So. 68. Numerous questions here presented were decided by this court in the opinion, supra. We therefore deem it unnecessary to again decide such questions p.s were settled and determined by that opinion.

Kules of practice do not permit litigants to speculate upon the answer to questions propounded to a witness. In order to be reviewed, upon appeal, it must appear that an objection was interposed to the question when the question was propounded and before the answer of the witness, or the record should show that the answer was returned so quickly as that time for objection to the question was not allowed. An objection to a'question made after the question has been answered comes too late, unless, as stated, the -record refutes the idea of speculating on the answer. This ruling disposes of a number of exceptions reserved in the court below, based upon objections to questions propounded to various witnesses. We also observe that in numerous instances where the court’s ruling was invoked by the interposition of objections, etc., no grounds of objection were stated, the record disclosing “the defendant objected to the above question,” also “the defendant objected to the above testimony.” The rule is clear and well settled that, where objection and exception are reserved to the introduction of testimony which is not patently illegal, or irrelevant, such exception will not be considered an error, unless the record shows that the grounds of objection were specified. Furthermore, the appellate court, in revising such decision, must consider only the grounds of objection which are shown to have been clearly specified. Bush v. State, 19 Ala. App. 650, 100 So. 307; circuit court rule 33, Code 1923, vol. 4, p. 906. The party appealing must affirmatively show error, and the rule, supra, obviates the necessity of the court to “cast about” for the grounds of objection, which the court is under no duty to do. Washington v State, 106 Ala. 58; 17 So. 546.

There is direct authority to justify the court in its rulings upcin the testimony of Dr. Elrod, relative to the location and character of the bullet wounds upon the deceased, from which wounds the death of Lucius F. Humber, without dispute, resulted. Rohn v. State, 186 Ala. 5, 65 So. 42. In the Rohn Case, supra, the Supreme Court said;

“ * * * It was clearly competent for the state to prove that bullet wounds are characteristically different at the points of entry and exit, respectively, and what that difference is; and any one who has often observed and examined such wounds is a competent witness thereto.”

The opinion goes further and says:

“It was competent also for the state’s witness, a medical man, well acquainted with the human anatomy and with gunshot wounds, to state from his examination of the wounds of *380 deceased his conclusion that the bullet entered at the back to the left of the spinal column and made its exit through the heart in front.”

See, also, Rikard v. State, 15 Ala. App. 497, 73 So. 992.

Proper and sufficient predicate for the admission of dying declaration was not only proven, but was conceded by defendant upon the trial. There was no error in admitting in evidence that part of the alleged dying declaration of the deceased to the effect that his wife shot him, “me begging her not to.” -It was of the res gestse of the killing. Stevens v. State, 138 Ala. 71, 35 So. 122; Sullivan v. State, 102 Ala. 135, 142, 15 So. 264, 48 Am. St. Rep. 22. The dying declarations objected to in the Sullivan Case, supra, are peculiarly analogous to the dying declarations shown to have been made by Lucius Humber, the deceased, in this case. In the Sullivan Case, Emmerson, the deceased, made the following dying declaration, as shown in the opinion:

“Jim Sullivan cut me — he cut me for nothing —I never did anything to him.”

The objections made to this testimony were:

“That it was a conclusion of the declarant— the opinion of the deceased — and that it did not relate to the circumstance or transaction of the killing.”

The Supreme Court said:

“There is nothing in this objection. The statement certainly did relate to the act, or transaction of the killing. * * * He also said Sullivan cut him for nothing, and that he (the declarant) did nothing to Sullivan. True, this statement was very general, but it was admissible as a collective fact.’,’

In the instant case, the court, through an abundance of caution, excluded that portion of the dying declaration, “She shot me for nothing.” .Under the authority above cited (Sullivan’s Case, supra), the court below could properly have admitted said declaration also.

Humber, the dying man, also said in his declaration, “She accused me of trying to steal everything she had.” The court did not err in its rulings in this connection, for the reason the statement was of the res gestee and therefore admissible; ^moreover, it tended to shed light on the motive of the accused. Stevens Case, supra: Oliver v. State, 17 Ala. 587.

The record shows that this question was propounded to Dr. Elrod by defendant on cross-examination:

“Q. If a person is addicted to the habitual use of morphine, is it a fact, and is it so recognized in your profession, that such persons so addicted to the habitual use of morphine are inveterate liars, and that no reliance whatever can be placed upon their statements?”

The state objected to this question, and the court sustained the objection. In doing so there was no error, for at the time this question was propounded there was no evidence before the court to the effect that the deceased was addicted to the habitual use of morphine. After the objection was sustained, counsel for the appellant made known to the court that he expected to prove later, during the trial, that the deceased was habitually addicted to the use of morphine, and asked to be allowed to prove an affirmative answer to the question above set out by the witness then on the stand. Pretermitting any decision as to appellant’s right to have the question answered, at a proper time, it is well settled that the conduct of the trial in the court below regarding the order in which evidence is 'admitted, rests largely in the discretion of the trial judge, and that his action will not be reversed except for abuse of discretion. At the time the question was propounded, appellant was not entitled to have it answered. The trial judge might have permitted an answer to the question upon the showing afterwards made, but no offer to do so was made, and, as stated, it was within the discretion of the trial court to regulate the reception of evidence, and this court cannot say from this record that that discretion was abused in the instant case. /

It appears that, while state’s witness Jones was being examined, after describing and referring to bullet holes in the floor, in the bedstead, and on the headboard of the bed, and in a mattress, the solicitor propounded this question to him: “Q.

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Bluebook (online)
108 So. 646, 21 Ala. App. 378, 1926 Ala. App. LEXIS 149, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/humber-v-state-alactapp-1926.