114 Ga. 828 | Ga. | 1902
At the November term, 1901, of Bibb superior court, Glover was brought to trial upon an indictment charging him with the offense of burglary. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, and he thereupon made a motion for a new trial, which was overruled, and he excepted. The controlling question in the case is whether or not the evidence upon which the State relied for a conviction was sufficient to sustain the jury’s finding. Four of the members of this court entertain the view that it was not, while I am of the contrary opinion. It was shown at the trial that, as charged in the indictment, the house of L. A. Braswell had, on the morning of the 24th of October, 1901, been burglariously entered and the sum of two dollars and a quarter in silver money taken therefrom. The only question really at issue was whether or not the accused was the person who had committed the offense. The State introduced as a witness Mrs. Braswell, who testified, in substance, as follows: Some one entered the house through a window in my room. The opening of the window did not awake me, but I woke apparently out of a sound sleep, the light being out first attracting my attention. My little one was very sick with the croup, and I decided that I would get up and give him some medicine. I thought Mr. Braswell had blown out the lamp. It was in one corner of my room, opposite
It appeared from the testimony of Braswell that, being awakened by the screams of his wife, he ran from the room which he was occupying into her room in order to find out what was the matter, but was not in time to see the alleged burglar. After daylight, however, he made an examination of the premises for the purpose of finding tracks, and discovered the track of a man who “ was in his sock feet.” This track led out in the direction of Mr. Hudson’s, a neighbor, and was followed for fifty yards and then lost, owing to the fact that, from that point on, the ground was so hard that no impression of footprints upon it was discernible. Hudson’s house had also been broken into, and he and Braswell followed a track which led from there down a road, the footprints being such as to indicate that the person making them was running at the time. The accused was suspected of being the guilty party,
From the foregoing it will be seen that the State established by direct and positive evidence that a burglary had been committed, as charged in the indictment, and also introduced testimony strongly pointing to the accused as the guilty person. The evidence bearing upon the question of identity was, it is true, purely circumstantial; but it was, in my opinion, sufficient to warrant a conviction. The trial judge, in charging the jury with regard to this branch of the case, fully and fairly instructed them as to the. law of reasonable doubt, and carefully explained to them the nature of circumstantial evidence and how they were to weigh the same in arriving at their conclusion as to the guilt or innocence of the accused. The verdict not being without evidence to support it, and having met the approval of the presiding judge, I feel constrained to dissent from the judgment of my brethren setting it aside.