183 Ga. 881 | Ga. | 1937
B. A. Graham was charged with murdering his wife by shooting her with a gun. From the evidence adduced on the trial substantially these facts appeared: On the morning of June 18, 1936, around half past seven o’clock, the wife was found dead in the bed at her home in Silvertown, Upson County. She was lying lengthwise on her back, and turned slightly to the left, with her feet drawn up and one knee crossed over the other, not exactly in the middle of the bed, but with her head somewhat closer to the edge than the rest of her body. Just below the right collar-bone was a gunshot wound that apparently went straight in, and was about the size of an orange. There were some slight powder burns on her neck and shoulder. Her death was instantaneous. Her gown was pulled up above hex waist and under her breasts, and the sheet was pulled up over her naked body. There was no blood on either side of the bed, but where her body lay and from her hips to her head blood had soaked through the mattress and to the floor underneath. Among a number of witnesses, including the members of the coroner’s jury, a policeman testified as to finding some small spots of blood on the hearth about twelve feet from the foot of the bed, and on the wall near the fireplace. A single-barrel 12-gauge shotgun was found resting against the bed on the left side, two or' three feet from the head, with the barrel against the bed and the stock on the floor, which was covered with a new linoleum rug. A fire poker was hanging in the trigger-guard, but whether it was behind or in front of the trigger the evidence was in conflict. An empty shell was in the gun. No one was in the house except the deceased and the defendant. The deceased woman was 23 years old, and was the mother of a boy
Several members of the coroner’s jury, one of whom was a physician, testified for the defendant, to the effect that the deceased was lying on her back in the bed when they found her about eight o’clock in the morning; that they made a demonstration with the gun and poker; that her body was raised to a sitting position in the bed, and the gun wasl placed on the floor and against the body and the gun, “and the wound just fitted;” that they looked around the room and made a search of the premises, and found blood only on the bed and on the floor under it; that “in order for that wound to have been made with this gun she would have had to be leaning forward from a sitting position — it would have to be right straight in front of her, at right angles. The stock of the gun would have had to' be resting on the floor with the end of the barrel against her. We placed the stock on the floor and placed the gun in about this position” (demonstrating). ’“Using this chair as the bed, the gun was placed like this on the floor,” the “body brought over like this, on the bed, and leaned her forward from a sitting position, . . and the shot would have gone straight in. The load came out here. If she had been in this position” (demonstrating with chair), “the load would have gone in this way, but the load did not go through this way. The load would have gone practically straight in, with her in a leaning position like this;” that “if she had been leaning forward from a sitting position she would have slumped forward like this;” and that if “that gun had been placed with the stock on that linoleum floor, and fired, . . it would have gone one way or the other, it would have kicked off the bed.” One witness stated that it was possible that it would have kicked off, and it was possible that it would not have. Another said, “If that gun had been resting against the bed, and this poker had been placed there, and the gun fired and death was instantaneous with the report of the gun, I 'think it would have knocked her back. I don’t know whether the gun would have kicked out on the floor or not, but it would have knocked her back; but really I don’t know just what would have happened to the gun. The gun would have had to be at right
The defendant made a statement to the effect that he and his wife got along well together; that she worried about the death of her baby, which happened sometime before; that she had “threatened” that she was “fed up on this old world;” and that he was shaving in the bathroom when he heard a “racket” in the bedroom, and he rushed in there and found his wife dead. There was no evidence to show that he gave an alarm, or why Mrs. Parish, the Silvertown café proprietress, was not placed on the stand as a witness. It does not appear how she found out that defendant’s wife was dead, or whether he told her to notify the doctor, the police, etc. The jury returned a verdict of guilty. The defendant moved for a new trial on the general grounds alone. The court overruled -the motion, and the defendant excepted.
This case presents to this court the one question whether the evidence adduced to establish the guilt of the accused was sufficient to authorize .his conviction. We have made a very painstaking review of the evidence. It must be conceded that the evidence consists entirely of circumstances from which the guilt of the accused must be inferred. “ Circumstantial evidence is that which only tends to establish the issue by proof of various facts, sustaining by their consistency the hypothesis claimed.” Code, § 38-102. “To warrant a conviction on circumstantial evidence, the proved facts shall not only be consistent with the hypothesis of guilt, but shall exclude every other reasonable hypothesis save that of the guilt of the accused.” § 38-109. “Whether dependent upon positive or circumstantial evidence, the true question in criminal cases is, not whether it be possible that the conclusion at which
Judgment reversed.