118 Ga. 804 | Ga. | 1903
The accused was convicted of murder, and sentenced to death. His case is here upon a bill of exceptions assigning error upon the refusal of the judge to grant him a new trial. Evidence was offered of what purported to be a dying declaration of the deceased, and this was objected to upon the ground that the
In one ground of the motion complaint is made because the court allowed a witness to testify: “ I said, Jim, did you have any weapon ? and he (referring to the deceased) said ‘ No, sir, not a thing in the world; if I had a gun, I could have killed every last one of them.’ ” The objection made to this evidence was, “ because said evidence was inadmissible.” In Seaboard Air-Line Ry. v. Phillips, 117 Ga. 98, it was said: “ In passing upon a ground of a motion for a new trial, where a question is raised as to the admissibility of evidence, this court will, in order to determine whether the ruling is erroneous, look only to what is set forth in the ground itself, or exhibited to the motion, and distinctly referred to in the ground as a part thereof.” Applying this rule, we can not determine, when looking at the ground alone, whether the evidence was admissible or inadmissible, even if the objection that it was “inadmissible” constitutes a sufficient assignment of error. It would seem that the assignment of error should set forth, not simply that the evidence was inadmissible, but should indicate what reasons were urged in the trial court why the evidence was inadmissible, so that this court could see what questions were passed on by that court. It is argued in the brief that this evidence was inadmissible for the reason that dying declarations are confined to the cause of death and the identity of the slayer. There is, however, nothing in the ground to indicate that what is therein set forth was a part of a dying declaration. We do not think that under established rules this ground of the motion can be considered.'