109 Ga. 809 | Ga. | 1900
Allen Fuller was indicted, tried, and fo.und guilty,, in Bibb superior court, under an indictment charging hiwith the murder of Mrs. Eugenia Hamilton Pottle, alleged to-have been committed in that county on November 20, 1899; whereupon he made a motion for a new trial, which was overruled by the judge below, and upon this ruling .he assigns error in his bill of exceptions.
It is contended by counsel for plaintiff in error that this testimony should not have been admitted under the circumstances set forth in the motion for a new trial, and substantially given above, for the reason that this conversation, or incriminating statement by the defendant, was not freely and voluntarily made. There is no question about the statement of the defendant admitted in evidence not being a confession. It was, on the contrary, an exculpatory statement in which the defendant evidently sought to place the crime on another, and insist upon his own innocence of any particular crime. It is introduced, however, by the State as a circumstance, taken in connection with other facts proved, which tended to incriminate the prisoner. We think the sounder view of the law touching the ad
But the case relied upon by counsel for plaintiff in error is Bram v. United States, 168 U. S. 532. By reading a report of the facts in that case, it will be seen they were entirely different from what the record in the case at bar presents. That was an indictment for murder alleged to have been committed on an American vessel on the high seas. On arrival at Halifax, a policeman and detective in the government service at that place had a conversation with defendant, who was indicted at Boston for the commission of the crime. The prisoner had been brought to the office of the policeman, where he stripped the defendant, examined his clothing, told him to submit to an examination, and searched him. Defendant was then in custody, and did everything the witness directed him to do. When defendant came into the policeman’s office, the officer said to him, “We are trying to unravel this horrible mystery.
. . Your position is rather an awkward one. I have had.Brown in this office, and he made a statement-that he saw you do the murder.” In the course of the conversation, he further told de
2. Another ground in the motion for a new trial is, that the court erred in refusing to rule out the testimony of Anna Redd, .a witness for the State, which motion was made by defendant’s counsel before the conclusion of the case to the jury, it being substantially as follows: She was the wife of Alfred Redd. The night her husband went to see Woolfolk up at the old iSmall place, there didn’t anything happen at her house. Redd went to George’s house and came back home, and witness heard Mrs. Pottle’s voice three times. She called him three times,
These witnesses further .testified that the house, when they got to it, was not occupied, was open, and anybody could have had access into it. In that satchel was also found a pair of scissors, the testimony indicating they were very similar to those owned by the deceased. "We have hereinbefore given the statement made by defendant to the sheriff. After this it seems search was made for the body claimed to have been burned, but no sign of such burning was found. The body was found in the river. The sheriff had another interview with the defendant Fuller, and told him that he had misled him, and that defendant had not told the truth; that Mrs. Pottle’s body was not where he said it was; that they looked every where. Then defendant stated, they had plowed over the place, and Redd certainly told him he put it there, and it was there somewhere, certain. The sheriff remarked, “ You sent me off on a wild-goose chase; she is not there,” and then told defendant they had found Mrs. Pottle’s body about three miles up the river, designating the place in the river where it was found. Defendant then admitted that he did not tell the truth, but stated he would then tell it. In this statement defendant said, he was coming up the road and overtook Redd and Mrs. Pottle. As he was passing, Redd spoke to him in a whisper, and told him, “I am going to kill her to-night, and you come and go with me; if you do, I will pay you for it.” He said, “We went on up the road away up about the ginhouse somewhere, and Redd a little bit behind her with an axe in his hand, and before I knowed it Redd struck her from behind with the axe one blow, and that knocked her to the ground, and he repeatedly struck her again, and she screamed and hollered.” Redd then took her up and put her on his shoulder, the defendant going with him, carried her to the river, resting one time only, and threw her body into the river. The evidence showed that the deceased only weighed about ninety-three pounds. The next day the sheriff had a conversation with the defendant about the hand-satchel. At that time it had not been found; and he asked Mm about the hand-satchel. He said, “Yes, she
The defendant made the following statement: “I was going on home one night, one Monday night, from town. I had been -to town at work on Monday, and I was going home from town, and I got up there in'the road against old man Redd’s house, and Mrs. Pottle and old man Redd was standing in the road talking, or right at the edge of it, and I walked right by them, and old man Redd says, ‘Who is that?’ and I says, ‘It is Fuller,’ and he says, ‘Hold on a minute, Fuller, and go up the road with me a piece. I am coming right back. I have got some particular business to talk to you ’; and I went on with him, and Mrs. Pottle, turned around and says, ‘Is you going a piece the way with me, Redd?’ and he says, ‘Yes, ’ and he turned - around and went right on, and me and him and her went on up the road together, and we got such a distance, and he hit her with a stick, and she fell and hollered, and I hollered too, and says, ‘What are you doing?’ and he jumped around to me, and hósays, ‘ Shut up, you are just as much into this as I am,’ and he says, ‘ If you make any talk about this at all, they will break your neck as quick as they will mine,’ and I was naturally scared to tell it to anybody, because I was with
In the light of this evidence, we can not say that the jury were not authorized to draw the conclusion that the defendant’s guilt was proved beyond a reasonable doubt,and to the exclusion of every other reasonable hypothesis. The verdict having been approved by the trial judge, we will not interfere with his discretion in overruling the motion for a new trial.
Judgment affirmed.