Scott v. State

120 S.E. 773, 157 Ga. 124, 1923 Ga. LEXIS 379
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedDecember 19, 1923
DocketNo. 3629
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 120 S.E. 773 (Scott 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
Scott v. State, 120 S.E. 773, 157 Ga. 124, 1923 Ga. LEXIS 379 (Ga. 1923).

Opinions

Beck, P. J.

Under an indictment charging him with the murder of one Moses Lucas, the defendant was tried and convicted, and was sentenced to life imprisonment in the penitentiary. He thereupon made a motion for a new trial, which was overruled.

' The evidence for the State shows that on September 19, 1922, the accused shot and killed Moses Lucas; that on September 18, the day before the commission of the homicide, the accused went to the store of Henry Lucas, the son of the decedent. According to the testimony of Henry, he and his wife were at the store' about 8 or 9 o’clock in the evening; the defendant came in, called to the witness, and asked him where his wife was; witness replied that [125]*125he did not know; and thereupon the accused called him a-liar. Witness saw a pistol in Scott’s possession. After an interchange of a few words, Scott seemed to be somewhat appeased, but still retained the threatening air and called witness out twice after-wards. The next afternoon, the day of the homicide, the accused came to witness’s store again, where the witness and his wife and two children were. Witness asked Scott to come in and sit down, which he did after a minute or two. And then, in the language of the witness, “He remarked he wanted satisfaction; and then he says, ‘Wait a minute,’ and he got up and went back home, but was not gone over two or three minutes, and he came back to the door and says, ‘-damn it, I want satisfaction. I am as-damn hot' now as I was last night;’ and I says, ‘What is the matter with you,’ and he says, ‘I don’t believe nothing you say; you are a-damn liar,’ and he began some accusations relative to his wife and my relations, to the effect that I was guilty of having kept his wife away from some date, I don’t remember now; and I could see the butt of his pistol in his pocket, and I tried to talk to him, and he cut me off, and he declared he came to kill me and told me to come on out there. He says, ‘I don’t want to kill you and your wife both, but I am going to kill you; I came to do that;’ and just about that time a little boy came in for some oil, and I went to the door to see if anybody was near, and he caught me at the door unprepared. I did not have a pistol on me, but it was in a box on my counter. I waited on the boy that came for the oil, Lester Battle; and Scott kept raging, and I started like I was going to put the money in the box, and he says, ‘You are the same man that followed me one night,’ and about that time he begun to pull his pistol out of his pocket, and I shot him twice, and he fell, and I ran to the door and covered him and watched him a minute or so, and he groaned and twisted and opened his eyes and started his hand to his pocket, and I shot him again in the breast, and then I shot him again when he turned over on his side. He had his pistol in his right breeches pocket. I did not know my father, Moses Lucas, was there; I did not see him at all during the fight with Scott. When I fired the last two shots Scott jumped up and ran, and I walked in the store. I then heard two more shots when I was about the middle of the store, and then I got my rifle and went out there ;• and I saw my father bent down like this, holding [126]*126his stomach, and he says, ‘That boy shot me twice for nothing.’ My store is about 18 feet long, and I was about half way it, and I stepped immediately on the sidewalk and saw my father immediately, and he came down the street to me, and about this time an automobile rolled up, and I put my father in it and sent him to the hospital. . . I did not see my father have any weapon; he did not own a pistol.” Moses Lucas died three days later. Witness testified, on cross-examination, that he fired the first, second, third, and fourth shots; that he shot Scott four times, once in the breast while he was down, and then shot him in the back when he was down; but that he shot him the first time before defendant had his pistol out of his pocket, He shot defendant one time with his rifle after defendant had shot his father; defendant shot at him after he had shot defendant, but missed him.

Emma Lucas, the wife of Henry Lucas, testified that on the night of the 18th of September Scott came to the store and accused her husband of improper relations with his wife; said that he was going to kill her husband; he was armed with a pistol. Scott was cursing and threatening to kill her husband, Henry Lucas. She was also present the next afternoon when Henry Scott came into the store and said, “Wait a minute;” he went out of the store and came back immediately, told her husband to come out, that he wanted to talk to him, and said, “I am going to kill you, come out;” said that he did not want to kill both of us; and her husband said, “You won’t allow me to say anything to you,” and Scott had his pistol in his front side pocket and never took his hand off of it. . . “My husband went behind the counter to wait on a customer and to put the money received in a box, and Henry Scott was threatening all the time to kill him. My husband’s pistol was on the counter, and Henry Scott was standing in the door with his hand on his pistol, and my husband shot him, and Scott fell out of the door with his hand still on his pistol. And I thought he was trying to get a chance to shoot my husband. He looked up and saw my husband standing in the door and had him covered, and Scott shot him when he was fixing to get up, and then Scott jumped up and ran, and almost in the same breath I heard him shoot again, that is, Henry Scott, and he shot two or three times. . . After I heard Scott shoot, my husband came into the store and got his rifle and shot one time. Old man Moses Lucas did not have a gun or pistol.”

[127]*127The deputy sheriff of Bibb county was also introduced as a witness for the State, and testified that when the officers brought Henry Scott down the street to put him in the ambulance, “to the best of my recollection he said, ‘--you, I come to get you, but you beat me to it/ ” Another deputy testified: “I was at the hospital after Henry Scott was carried there, and I asked him if he had any trouble with old man Moses, and why he shot him; and he said he hadn’t any trouble with him, that when he got up off of the ground the old man was the first person he saw, and he was walking towards him, and he shot him.”

The evidence for the State clearly shows that the defendant went to the store of Henry Lucas, the son of the decedent, with the avowed intent to kill him; that he was armed with a pistol, which was visible to bystanders; that he used most abusive language to Henry Lucas, repeatedly threatening to kill him; that Henry Lucas ■was unarmed, but went behind a counter in the store where his pistol was in a box, took it therefrom, and shot the man who had come to the store the day before, threatening to kill him, and who came again on the evening of the homicide, repeating the threats and the abusive language, put his hand on his pistol, but before he drew it was shot by Henry Lucas. If the testimony of Henry Lucas and his wife is true, and it is strongly corroborated by the testimony of the officers of the law, then Lucas shot Scott because the latter had manifested a fixed purpose and determination to shoot him, with the present intent to carry that purpose into execution, with his hand on his pistol, and with threats on his lips.

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Related

Hand v. State
83 S.E.2d 276 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1954)
Reed v. State
29 S.E.2d 505 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1944)

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Bluebook (online)
120 S.E. 773, 157 Ga. 124, 1923 Ga. LEXIS 379, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scott-v-state-ga-1923.