115 So. 297 | Ala. | 1928
Evidence of a pistol defendant had the day after the alleged crime was erroneously admitted. Williams v. State,
Charlie C. McCall, Atty. Gen., and W. M. Rayburn, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
Testimony as to footprints was entirely competent and proper. Young v. State,
There was no error in permitting the witnesses to testify that when the persons passed going in the same direction of the swimming hole, where the homicide took place, they were "pulling or pushing each other," in view of the subsequent evidence of the confession of the defendant that he forced or compelled the deceased to go with him. Nor was there error in permitting proof that defendant had a pistol the day after the shooting in connection with his subsequent exhibition of a pistol to certain witnesses containing a discharged chamber, and the further statement that he had used it in killing a man.
We think a sufficient predicate was established to show that the confessions were voluntary. True, the last one was made when the defendant was captured or arrested or when being taken to jail, but the evidence clearly shows that they were not obtained by threats, promises, or inducements. There is nothing in the case of Curry v. State,
It is difficult to tell just what was included in the objection and ruling of the trial court on page 38 of the record in the testimony of W. F. Birchfield. The state objected to the question as to the grudge against the Dudley boy, but the witnesses answered fully. Defendant's counsel then asked, "What else did he say." The court: "Wait a minute. I don't think that is competent." And the defendant excepted. We can hardly put the trial court in error to the statement as to such a general question.
We do not think the trial court erred in permitting the state's witnesses to give their opinion as to the defendant's sanity. The defendant had offered evidence, nonexpert evidence, that he was insane, therefore the state's witnesses who knew him well and intimately could give their nonexpert opinion on the subject. Pritchard v. Fowler,
There was no error in not excluding the argument of the solicitor to which an objection and exception were reserved.
There was no error in giving charge 1 at the request of the state. It conformed to the statute as to the burden of proof. Section 4572 of the Code of 1923.
There was no error in refusing the defendant's requested charge 6. If not otherwise faulty, it instructs that the establishment of insanity subsequent to the commission of crime creates a presumption that it existed at the time the crime was committed. It is a rule of law that where permanent, as distinguished from temporary or spasmodic, insanity is established, it is presumed to continue, but we know of no rule making the establishment of insanity, permanent or temporary, a presumption that the party was insane prior thereto.
The other charges requested by the defendant, whether in proper form or couched in proper language, or not, were fully and fairly covered by the oral charge of the trial court.
The judgment of the circuit court is affirmed except as to the sentence. The defendant was sentenced to death by hanging, but the time has expired and the method of imposing the death penalty is now by electrocution, *229
and the cause is remanded in order that the trial court may resentence the defendant in conformity with the present statute. Leonard v. State, ante, p. 60,
Affirmed in part and remanded.
All the Justices concur.