158 Ga. 41 | Ga. | 1924
It is not necessary for the State to show affirmatively that the deceased said he was in a dying condition, in order to admit proof of his declarations, if in point of fact he was in articulo mortis, and the circumstances were such that he must have known that he was in a dying condition. Consciousness of his condition may be inferred from the nature of the wound and other circumstances. Washington v. State, 137 Ga. 218 (73 S. E. 512); Jefferson v. State, 137 Ga. 382 (3) (73 S. E. 499); Barnett v. State, 136 Ga. 65 (70 S. E. 868). The fact that the statements of the deceased were made in response to questions asked him by another does not render such statements inadmissible. This fact may affect the weight to be given to the statements, but not their admissibility. Park v. State, 126 Ga. 575 (55 S. E. 489); Smith v. State, 9 Ga. App. 403 (71 S. E. 606). We do not think that the trial judge erred in holding that a prima facie ease had been proved for the admission of these statements, by reason of the fact that the physician by whom they were proved testified that he did not think that the deceased, at the time of making them, had much of a mental state, and that he did not think that the deceased could have thought or reasoned much; it appearing that the deceased at the time asked for water, and answered the questions which elicited said statements, without suggestion as to how he should answér them, and apparently in a rational manner. Under these circumstances, the opinion of the physician as to the mental condition of the deceased and his ability to think and reason went to the weight to be given them by the jury, and not to their ad
Judgment affirmed.