Thomas v. State

65 So. 863, 11 Ala. App. 85, 1914 Ala. App. LEXIS 11
Alabama Court of Appeals·Decided June 3, 1914·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

THOMAS, J.

The defendant was indicted for murder in the first degree, and convicted of murder in the second degree.

There was no eye witness to the hilling, and the body of the deceased, Henry Freeman, was not discovered until several hours after his death. All the evidence as to the commission of the crime, and all the evidence tending to show that the defendant was the author thereof, was entirely circumstantial. These circumstances, however, were both strong and well-connected, and in our opinion were such, if believed, as to exclude every other reasonable hypothesis than that a homicide had been committed and than that defendant was guilty of the commission thereof.

In the course of the trial the defendant reserved some 92 exceptions to the rulings of the trial court, all of them relating, respectively, to the admission and rejection of evidence and to the refusal to give certain written charges, including the general affirmative charge requested by defendant. In response to the duty imposed upon us by law in criminal cases, we have not only carefully examined these exceptions, hut have [90] searched the record for error, and our conclusion of the whole matter, succinctly stated, is that the defendant had a fair trial according to law, and that there was no injurious or prejudicial error committed by the trial court. The defendant is represented in briefs by two firms of learned lawyers, whose known ability is such, and whose interest in the cause of their client, and consequently in the reversal of the judgment, is deemed to be such, that we may affirm with assurance that they would not omit to urge upon our consideration any point raised by the record that had the least particle of merit. In view of this fact, and in view of the further fact, as before stated, that we are of the opinion that there is no merit in any of the exceptions, whether it be those urged or those not urged, and in view of the further fact that neither of them raises any new or novel question, or involves, in this ruling upon them, the establishment of any new precedent, we feel justified, although this is a criminal case and one of importance, in economizing-time by confining our discussion to only such points as are insisted upon in the briefs of appellant’s counsel. This we will do, believing no possible benefit, either to the defendant, to the profession, to the law, or to its administration could be subserved by a contrary course.

The first exception insisted upon has reference to the action of the trial court in overruling defendant’s objection to the following question propounded by the solicitor to one of the state’s witnesses: “Well, did you observe the manner and demeanor of this man [speaking of defendant] before you arrested him, and was it nervous or not?” The witness answered: “Yes, sir; he appeared nervous.” One of the insistences, in brief, is that the question was leading. Conceding this to be true, that defect was not pointed out in either of the objections to the question, and, even if it had been, the [91] rule is that the trial court may, in its discretion, permit leading questions, and will not be reversed therefor unless it appears that the discretion was abused.— Weaver v. State, 2 Ala. App. 102, 56 South. 747. The only grounds of objection to the question, as disclosed by the record, are that the question calls for illegal, irrelevant, and immaterial matter. A specification of objection waives all others, and a general objection, as here, will avail nothing unless the testimony sought to be elicited by the question is patently illegal and irrelevant for any purpose. — Buie 33 of Circuit Court Practice, Civil Code, p. 1527, and cases there cited. Such is not the case here, as will appear, without the necessity of a discussion by us, from an examination of the following authorities: Hainsworth v. State, 136 Ala. 13, 34 South. 203; Tagert v. State, 143 Ala. 88, 39 South. 293, 111 Am. St. Rep. 17; Sims v. State, 146 Ala. 109, 41 South. 413; Maddox v. State, 159 Ala. 53, 48 South. 689.

There was no injury, if error, in permitting the state’s witness, Dr. Maxwell, to testify that there was a difference in size between a 32 and 38-caliber pistol ball. It was a correct statement of a fact of common knowledge and observation, known as well to the jury as to the witness.

Nor was there error in permitting the witness tó state that he extracted from the body of the deceased the balls or bullets found therein, and weighed them, and that one weighed 100 grains and the other 99]4 grains. These facts were merely links in the chain of circumstantial facts proved by the state, and from which the jury were asked to infer the guilt of defendant. Standing alone, they would have been without probative force, but when coupled and connected, as they were in the evidence, with the other facts and circumstances proved, they were material, and tended to strengthen the inference of defendant’s guilt.

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Thomas v. State, 65 So. 863, 11 Ala. App. 85, 1914 Ala. App. LEXIS 11 (Ala. Ct. App. 1914).

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