63 So. 8 | Ala. | 1913
— In a' criminal prosecution the state may always offer the flight of the defendant from the neighborhood of the crime as some evidence— a circumstance — tending to show the guilt of the defendant.
When a crime has been committed, and the state offers evidence tending to show that the defendant absented himself from the community in which the crime was committed, the value of this fact of flight depends entirely upon the purpose of the defendant in thus absenting himself from the community. The question as to why the defendant left the community and remained away from it becomes a question for the jury, and so, when the state offers the fact of the defendant’s flight from the community in evidence, the law allows both the state and the defendant to show all those things which the defendant said and did when he left, and white airay from the community, which tend to explain the quo animo of the flight, whether the absence of the
The evidence which the defendant may offer on this subject cannot be offered or received as self-serving declarations tending to show that he had no connection with the commission of the corpus delicti. The evidence which he may lawfully offer on this subject is evidence connected with his flight, and explaining the character of the flight. In other words, when the state, in a criminal case, offers evidence tending to show flight on the part of the defendant, then the acts and words of the defendant which are so connected with the flight as to give character to' it, and to really give color to it, are parts of the res gestae of the flight, and are admissible as such. Flight, as used in this connection, means that the defendant absented himself from the community of the crime out of a sense of guilt, out of fear bf or to avoid arrest, and any Avord or act of the defendant while in flight — i. e., while away from the community of the crime — tending to explain the reason for his absence is admissible as a part of it. Of course a defendant, in such a case, cannot get before a court or jury his declaration that he is not guilty of the crime, or any other mere self-serving declaration tending to shoAV that he had no connection with the commission of the corpus delicti, but he may show, as evidence tending to rebut the idea that his absence was in fact a “fleeing from justice,” such acts and declarations of his while absent Avhich may tend to show that his absence from the community was due to an entirely different cause. In other words, when flight is offered as a circumstance tending to show the defendant’s guilt, the (question is at once at hand as to whether, during his absence, the defendant is to be regarded as having been
A criminal may, of course, leave a community in an open and in an accustomed way; he may, while on his journey, conduct himself in the usual and accustomed way, and when he reaches the point of his destination he may remain in the open, do nothing to conceal his identity, conduct himself in the usual Avay, and openly keep those informed at the place of the crime of his whereabouts. But a fugitive from justice does not usually behave in this manner because such behavior usually defeats the object of the criminal in becoming a fugitive from justice. The criminal usually leaves a community secretly, conceals his identity while en route, and by changing his name, etc., conceals his identity Avhen he reaches his destination, etc. It is for these indicated reasons that the law,’ on the question as to whether a particular person was, at a particular period, a fugitive from justice, permits the broad range to the testimony to Avhich we have above alluded.
“W. G. Memphis, Tenn.
[Stamp.]
Jul. 22, 10 P. M. 1911.
Hello Mama I am in memphis now I am on my way to spada now. I will write again when I get out there yours kidow”
Mrs. M. A. Goforth,
Altoona,
Ala.
There was evidence, also, tending to show that when the defendant reached Spadra, Ark., he wrote and mailed to his mother at Altoona the following other open postal card:
*73 jul. 25, 1 P. M. 1911.
“Wiley Spadra,
Hello Mama how are you by this time I am all ok say mama we landed in Spadra sun-day evening I am going to look for a job this morning tell all the kids hello for me.”
[Stamp.]
Mrs. M. A. Goforth,
Altoona,
Ala.
Giving the bill of exceptions an honest interpretation, we take it that the trial judge admitted the postal cards in evidence for the purpose of showing that the defendant wrote his mother when he reached Memphis, and that he wrote to her when he reached Spadra, but that he excluded from the jury the contents of the postal cards. In the opinion of the writer the trial court, in this ruling, committed reversible error. While the contents of the postal cards may have been intended by the defendant for his mother only, nevertheless they were open. Regardless of the question as to whether it would have been a violation by the postal authorities of the laws or regulations of the post office department to have read those postal cards or not, the postal cards were open, and the defendant must have known, when he mailed those postal cards, that they could be read by any person in the employ of the United States government or by any other person into whose hands they might fall before they reached his mother. The defendant knew that Altoona was a small town. He probably knew the postmaster, and if the state’s theory is the correct theory, he not only knew of the murder, but was, when he left Alabama, when he reached Memphis, and when he arrived at Spadra, and while at Spadra, before arrest, in flight because of this crime — a fugitive from justice. The postal card from Memphis showed
(2.) This case must again be tried, and it may be well for us to say that under some of the tendencies of the evidence in this case a majority of the members of this court are of opinion that the letter which was written
3. It is the opinion of all the members of this- court that the rulings of the trial court on all matters hot above discussed were in accordance with the law.
Eeversed and remanded.