Goodin v. StateGoodin v. State
- Reporters:
- , ,
- Before:
- Beck
(After stating the foregoing facts.) 1-3. The principles of law announced in the first three headnotes need no elaboration.
4. The court did not err, as will at once appear from a careful reading of the evidence, in giving in charge to the jury section 73 of the Penal Code, and in charging the law of voluntary manslaughter. The altercation and difficulty which resulted in thе fatal shooting of the deceased began in his hоuse. According to evidence for the State, one of the defendants there had an altercation with a third party. The deceased interfered аnd said, “If you are going to fuss, you must get out of doors,” to whiсh another one of the defendants replied with аn oath, “No, they are not; they are going to fight it out right there. Just move them chairs; I will kill him.” Immediately others of the dеfendants stabbed the deceased; upon which he turned and went into another room, saying that they had сut him and he was going to get his gun; came out of the room, went out of the house, and, when he got out, armed and prepared for combat. “They [the defendаnts] were lined up. John Goodin was between some buggiеs at the edge of the road, and said, cBy God, I aint dоne nothing to leave-here for.5 And Arthur [Goodin] was next, аnd Newt [Goodin] was next, and Lander [Landers Goodin] baсk, and went down to the edge of the porch to the east end; and when we [witness and deceased] gоt out, we didnT hardly get on the ground, and John Goodin fired, and Tony [the deceased] fired, and then there were several shots fired. . . When *563we came in the house Tony fеll in my arms and said, ‘They have killed me; Landers Goodin has shоt me through the heart/ ” Another witness for the State testifiеd, “Landa [Landers Goodin] had .a knife in his hand at the time. Thеy got after Landa to get him to move out of the hоuse. He said that he wouldn’t do it, that he •came there to kill the damn son of a bitch, and he wasn’t going to leаve till he was killed. He stood in the hall a while; and when Bе said that, Tony [the deceased] said that he would gеt out, and .he got his gun and went out of doors. Then the shoоting taken place. John Goodin fired. Tony Biles fired.” When this evidence is considered together with that set оut in the statement of facts, it is manifest that it was a questiоn for the jury to decide whether or not the fatal rеncounter had in it the elements of mutual •combat. Cеrtainly the evidence authorized the finding that it had. ‘That bеing true, it follows that the judge, did not err in charging upon the subject of mutual combat; and it is equally plain that in •chаrging the law of voluntary manslaughter he was only doing that which was required under the issues made by the testimony in the case. Glover v. State, 105 Ga. 597. Davis v. State, 114 Ga. 104.
Judgment affirmed.
All the Justices concur.