129 Ga. 759 | Ga. | 1907
Mrs. Sallie Freeney was indicted for the murder of W. P. Harrell, committed by shooting him with a. pistol. She was convicted and recommended to be imprisoned for life. She moved for a new trial, which was refused, and she excepted.
The right to open and conclude the argument in a criminal case is an important right. If it be improperly denied, -this furnishes ground for a new trial. In criminal trials the accused has k right to make to the court and jury a statement not under oath. Counsel for the defendant have the right to comment upon the statement so made. It was held in Nero v. State, 126 Ga. 554 (55 S. E. 404), that the statement can not properly be made the vehicle for the introduction of documentary evidence, which should be formally offered; and that the presiding judge could decline to allow such documents to be read to the jury by the accused. In Nobles v. State, 127 Ga. 212 (56 S. E. 125), the accused, while making a statement, used for the purpose of illustration a map which he held in his hand, but it was not introduced in evidence. The majority of this court held that the presiding judge did not err in refusing to allow counsel for the defendant to make use of the map during his argument. The writer of this opinion dissented. See also Crawford, v. State, 117 Ga. 247 (5), (43 S. E. 762). If it were clear that the rent receipts which formed the subject of the ruling in regard to the opening and conclusion of
Hnder this statement from the court, the defendant did introduce evidence, and thus lost the right to the opening and conclusion of the argument. It is said that the receipts are not in the brief of evidence, and that this shows that they were not introduced.
In Pound v. State, 43 Ga. 88, 136, it was said that the section under review (then numbered 4266) applied only to the defense given to a person in protecting his habitation, or property, or family, or himself, while in such place, from forcible attack. Some doubt as to this was afterwards expressed (Crawford v. State, 90 Ga. 701, 17 S. E. 628, 35 Am. St. R. 242); but we think it is sound. The property concerned in the Crawford case was meat
It being error, as an abstract proposition, to charge that the serious injury referred to in this statute must amount to a felony,
Judgment affirmed.