114 Ga. 523 | Ga. | 1902
The brief of evidence in the present case discloses that a colored man named Joe Tankersly lived alone in a house which contained a large room and a shed-room. On the night of the 1st day of February, 1901, this house was consumed hy fire. In the early morning of the next day, the dead body of an adult human being was found amid the ruins of the shed-room. A pool of blood was discovered on the ground in front of the door of the house, and drops of hlood were traced up to the very place where the door had been situated. Jack Cook, another colored man, was indicted for and convicted of the murder of Tankersly. At the trial there was testimony establishing the facts above stated. It further appeared that the corpse found in the ruins of the house was much charred and scarcely recognizable,.but one witness undertook to swear positively that it was the body of Tankersly. There was also evidence tending to show that the accused had a grudge against Tankersly and had repeatedly threatened to do him injury. The coroner of the county, who on the trial was sworn as a witness for the State, testified: “I had this defendant here, Jack Cook, before the coroner’s jury. He said he didn’t know nothing about the killing. Said he didn’t know anything; he said, 'a secret that nobody would find out but God.’ ” Another witness for the State, W. H. Harris, testified that while Cook was in jail, he made a free and voluntary statement to the witness, which the latter took down in writing. It was as follows: “On the night that Joe was killed, I fed my mule and went in to eat my supper; and when I came out to lock my crib door, I saw Joe at my stable. I made to the stable. Joe
In the argument here counsel for the plaintiff in error insisted that the conviction was unlawful, (1) because there was no.positive evidence of the corpus delicti; and (2) because,taking the evidence as a whole, it did not exclude every reasonable hypothesis except the guilt of the accused. The circumstantial evidence tending to identify the body of the deceased as that of Tankersly was overwhelming ; and besides, as will have been noted, there was some positive testimony that the body found in the ruins of the house was Tankersly’s. We therefore feel no hesitation in holding that the identity of the deceased was sufficiently established. On the main question: was the evidence, the same being entirely circumstantial, sufficiently strong to show beyond a reasonable doubt, and to the exclusion of every other rational hypothesis, that Tankersly was murdered by Jack Cook? we are of the opinion that it was. There were threats on the part of the accused indicating an intention to do the deceased great bodily harm. There was Cook’s own free and voluntary statement to the effect that he did beat Tankersly almost to death, drawing from him a considerable quantity of blood. This statement was corroborated by the physical fact that blood was found before the house and traced up to it. The body of the deceased was found, not under the room in which was located the bed on which Cook said he had laid Tankersly after beating him into a state of helplessness, but amid the ruins of another and distinct part of the house. It is a well-settled rule of law that, in passing upon a confession or an incriminating admission, the jury may believe a portion of the same and reject the balance as false. Bearing this in mind, and taking into consideration all of the physical facts above recited, our conclusion is that the jury were warranted in finding that Tankersly was actually murdered; that the crime was committed by Cook; that the latter told a part of the truth as to his connection with the homicide, and in other respects made false statements concerning the same. It is a fair and reasonable inference from the testimony as a whole that the,accused, after beating Tankersly until he was unconscious and unable to move about, conveyed his body into the shed-room and then burned the house for the purpose of concealing the crime; and that he did
Judgment affirmed.