147 Ga. 412 | Ga. | 1917
Alice Burden and Frank Eandom were jointly indicted for the offense of murder, it being charged that they feloniously killed Jack Burden in the manner set forth in the indictment. Alice Burden was put upon trial, and the jury returned a verdict of guilty with a recommendation. In evidence for the State were introduced a piece of paper with the word “Allice” written on it, and a letter which Hailey, the deputy sheriff of the county, testified he had obtained from Frank Eandom. The letter was as follows: “My Dear friend Frank: If you please take it on yourself and when I get out I will give you $50 dollars and let me tell them that you done it if you please and don’t you tell them papa was over there Sat morning. You just say you shot him an I will give you $50 dollars. So by by- Allice Blackwell.” Blackwell had been the maiden name of the prisoner. There was also evidence tending to show improper intimacy between the man and the woman jointly indicted. Eelatively to these two papers Hailey testified: “I got this note or letter from some one in jail. I got it from Frank Eandom. It was in his possession. That note has been in my possession and I got it from Frank Eandom. I had Alice Blackwell to write her name, or write her name across a piece of paper. At the time I got her to write her name I offered her no inducement or hope of reward. I did not hold over her any fear of punishment. Whatever she said or done was done freely and voluntary. She just wrote ‘Allice.’ Comparing this name there, ‘Allice,’ with what I saw her write, yes, sir, it looks very much like the same handwriting to me. " In spelling the name that she wrote for me, she spelled it A-l-l-i-c-e, and it is spelled A-l-l-i-c-e on this note. . . I do not know the handwriting of this woman. I do not suppose I would know it
The letter and the piece of paper were both admitted in evidence over objection that the signature to the letter, and the word “Allice” upon the piece of paper, had not been shown to be in the handwriting of the accused. We think this objection to both was well taken. In one place the testimony of Hailey is somewhat obscure, in that it is not clearly shown whether the piece of paper that was introduced was the one which the State claimed to be that upon which the witness had at first testified that the defendant in his presence wrote the word ‘Allice;’ but considering all this evidence -together, we are of the opinion that it sufficiently appears that the piece of paper with the word ‘Allice’ written on it went to the jury on the theory that it was the same piece of paper on which the defendant had written the word in the presence of the deputy sheriff. This was error, because the sheriff did not identify the paper as that upon which the word had been written in the first instance. His testimony upon the first direct examination was to the effect that he had thrown the paper down, and that the jail had been swept out several times. It is true that he stated that this piece of paper produced on the trial had been taken from the prisoner’s box under her direction; but that did not establish its identity with the first piece of paper.
It was also error for the court to permit the witness, who had ’ merely seen the defendant write one word sometime before the trial, to testify as to the genuineness of the disputed signature to the letter. If the witness had qualified as an expert in handwriting, or had sworn that upon having seen the prisoner write once, that is, when she wrote the word “Allice,” he knew or could identify her handwriting, and had, after that statement, identified the signature “Allice Blackwell” as that of the prisoner, this would have been sufficient proof of the execution of the writing of the letter to allow it to go to the jury,’and they could have passed
Having .held that it was error to admit the writings referred to, it follows that a new trial must be granted, because the evidence was material and necessarily harmful, the letter being one from a woman to a man who was jointly indicted with her and with whom there was some evidence tending to show criminal intimacy, asking him to take upon himself the commission of the crime, and offering him inducement to do so. If the jury believed that the letter was actually written by the accused, it would no doubt have had great weight with them in reaching their verdiet.
Judgment reversed.