181 Ga. 538 | Ga. | 1935
Sammie Armstrong was indicted for the murder of Harman O’Donald. The jury found him guilty, without a recommendation. He made a motion for new trial, which was overruled, and he excepted. The original motion for new trial in this case contains the general grounds. The defendant filed an amendment to his motion, and the references hereinafter are to those grounds as numbered in the amendment.
In the fourth ground error is assigned upon the admission of the following testimony: “Some one hollered out in front of my house . . and I went to the front, and G. M. Miles stood out there, and he says, 'Herman O’Donnell [O’Donald] is shot.’ . . I says, 'Did you shoot him?’ and he says, 'No, sir. Sammie Armstrong shot him, and he tried to shoot me.’ ” The judge stated, in a note to this ground, that “the court ruled out saying that 'Sammie Armstrong shot him.’” With that part of the ground stricken out, there is nothing in this evidence that is hurtful to the defendant. With the name of Sammie Armstrong stricken from the evidence, there is nothing to show who it was that tried to shoot Miles.
The fifth ground is as follows: “Because, during the progress of the trial and within the hearing of the jury, the trial judge did intimate and express an opinion that the defendant on trial was a party to the killing for which he was on trial; for that while the witness Oscar Lowe, while testifying on behalf of the State, on the witness-stand, the following took place: 'Q. What condition did you find Henson in? A. Yery bad shape. Q. Had he been shot? A. Yes sir. Q. Where was .he shot ? A. On the back side of the head. Q. What was the condition of his face?’ The following objection was then urged by Mr. Mann, of counsel for movant: 'Of course, they have not connected the case up; we prtefer that they connect them up; they are trying him [movant] for the murder of Herman O’Donnell, and certainly any evidence of the condition of anybody else would not have any bearing on this case, until they connect it.’ The trial judge then announced, in the hearing of the jury: 'I overrule you on that, toward connecting them up, if it was done at the same time and place, and this defendant was a party to it.’” There was no error in the ruling com
In the seventh ground exception is taken to the failure of the court “to charge the jury, on trial of movant’s case, the law of manslaughter in his charge to the jury trying said case, as embodied in section 64 of the Penal Code of Georgia (Park’s, 1914).” This assignment of error raises no question for decision by this court. It is not even stated whether the court should have charged the law of voluntary or involuntary manslaughter. “A complaint, in a motion for new trial, of a failure of the court to charge the
The rulings given in headnotes 4, 5, and 6 require no elaboration. Judgment affirmed.