White v. State

169 S.E. 499, 177 Ga. 115, 1933 Ga. LEXIS 129
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedMay 18, 1933
DocketNo. 9189
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 169 S.E. 499 (White 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
White v. State, 169 S.E. 499, 177 Ga. 115, 1933 Ga. LEXIS 129 (Ga. 1933).

Opinions

Atkinson, J.

Mose White was jointly indicted with Richard Sims, John Peek, and Richard Morris for the murder of Frank C. (called Red) Foster, by shooting him with a pistol. Mose White was placed on separate trial. The homicide occurred at about eleven o’clock at night in a store located “at 565 Boulevard N. E.,” in the City of Atlanta in Fulton County, Georgia. Foster was a policeman who had walked into the store and was leaning over a counter engaged in conversation with the proprietor. Four persons, including Mose White and his brother Harold (called Toodlums) White, armed with concealed pistols, came into the store ostensibly to make purchases, and took positions at different places. Harold White, the apparent leader, called “all right boys,” and with two drawn pistols surprised the clerk and rifled the cash register. At the same time Mose White drew two pistols while the others placed their hands in their pockets. The clerk did not resist, but walked toward the rear of the store, with Harold holding a pistol against his back. When they reached Foster and the proprietor, who had not noticed what had happened, Harold commenced shooting Foster from his front and Mose commenced shooting at him from his rear. After being shot twice by Harold, Foster shot Harold, who being seized by the proprietor fell behind the counter, mortally wounded. It all occurred in a few moments, and Mose and the other offenders ran away, leaving the automobile in which they had come to the place parked in the street, with the engine idling. Foster received three wounds from the front, causing him to die in a few minutes. Harold White lived to be carried to a hospital. The three offenders who escaped soon met at a designated house which they had previously frequented, and from which they had left on the night in question, and divided the money taken from the cash register. Mose White later in the same night went to the home of his parents and informed them that Harold was in the hospital. He also went to the homes of other relatives, and made incriminatory statements. About two weeks later he was arrested in Detroit, Michigan. On his separate trial, there being evidence tending to show all that is stated above and other evidence which hereinafter sufficiently appears, Mose White [117]*117was convicted, and was sentenced to be executed. His motion for a new trial was overruled, and he excepted.

In the first special ground of the motion for a new trial complaint is made of admission of testimony of John Eedwine, relating to certain incriminatory statements made by Mose White to the witness and his wife at their home at about 12:30 o’clock on the night the crime was committed. The testimony was admitted over . objection, and a motion to rule it out was overruled, the ground of objection being that the State had not laid the foundation for introduction of admissions in evidence by proof that they “were freely and voluntarily made, without the slightest hope of benefit or the remotest fear of injury; that the evidence theretofore given by Eedwine, concerning the circumstances in which the admissions were made, showed that they were not freely and voluntarily made by the defendant, but were made by him while in tears to his sister as a confidential communication induced by her pressure and reminder of his brother’s death and mother’s imprisonment arising out of the transaction which was the subject of said alleged admissions.” The preliminary testimony of the witness on direct and cross-examination was: “Mattie Eedwine is my wife. . . I saw Mose White that night. He came to my house around 12:30. My wife handled two phone calls. The first one was about 15 minutes before the second one. It was about 15 minutes after the second call before Mose came to my house. It was all within about thirty minutes— the first and second call and his appearance at my house. When he got to my house he knocked on the door, and I went to the door and let him in, and he came in the bedroom. I did not have any conversation with him. I was listening to their conversation. My wife did not threaten him any; she kept after him to tell her what happened. Then he came on and told it, and that’s all that happened. My wife is his sister.” (Cross-examination) “There was just the three of us present; that was my wife, Mose, and myself. My wife and I were at home in bed when Mose came in. My wife spoke to him first. Mose ain’t said a word when he came in. My wife said to him, 'Tell me what happened.’ The best I remember, she said, 'What is the matter? They tell me Toodlums is dead; tell me what has happened,’ and Mose did not say anything. It seems like, the best I can remember, he started to crying and shed a few tears, and then she kept questioning him, and he told her. [118]*118No, lie was not crying when he first came in. When she told him that Toodlnms was dead, he shed a few tears. Then she pressed him and asked him to tell her the truth about it, and she called attention to the fact that she was his sister and told him about his brother being dead. She never mentioned the fact that she was his sister, and she never called his attention to the fact that Toodlums was his brother. The only thing was that she said Toodlums is dead. As to why I said awhile ago that she called attention to the fact that she was his sister — that’s what you said. I reckon there was about three minutes time transpired from the time Mose began to tell her about the affair and the time when she first began to talk to him. He was reluctant to tell her at first. After she began to press him he told her. When attention was called to Toodlums’ death he cried a little. . . The only thing that was said about her mother was that she was in jail, locked up in connection with this affair. . . When my wife pressed him and told him about his mother being in jail and his brother dead, he told it.”

It is declared in the Penal Code, § 1032: “To make a confession admissible, it must have been made voluntarily, without being induced by another, by the slightest hope of benefit or remotest fear of injury.” Immediately following it is declared (§ 1033) : “The fact that a confession is made under a spiritual exhortation, or a promise of secrecy, or a promise of collateral benefit, shall not exclude it.” The preliminary evidence was sufficient to lay the foundation for admission of the testimony as to incriminatory statements. The fact that in the circumstances related the statements made by the defendant were in response to an appeal made by his sister, in which she alluded to the death of his brother and incarceration of his mother, would not render the statements inadmissible. The appeal was not stronger than “spiritual exhortations,” which the Code declares shall not exclude a confession. No hope was held out to him by his sister. If he was impelled by any hope, it was out of his own imagination, and would not have affected admissibility of the evidence. Hill v. State, 148 Ga. 521 (97 S. E. 442). See also Barker v. State, 169 Ga. 414 (2) (150 S. E. 642); Bradberry v. Slate, 170 Ga. 859 (4) (154 S. E. 344); Bradberry v. State, 170 Ga. 870 (3) (154 S. E. 351). The foregoing is in accord with King v. State, 155 Ga. 707 (118 S. E. 368), followed in Lee v. State, 168 Ga. 554 (148 S. E. 400), in which, on different [119]*119facts from those in the instant case, the alleged confessions were held inadmissible.

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Bluebook (online)
169 S.E. 499, 177 Ga. 115, 1933 Ga. LEXIS 129, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/white-v-state-ga-1933.