115 Ga. 244 | Ga. | 1902
E. G. Howard was indicted by the grand jury of Bibb county for the murder of Henry Hammond. He was tried and convicted. He submitted a motion for a new trial, which was overruled, and he assigned as error certain rulings made by the trial judge, as well as the judgment overruling the motion for a new trial. The evidence is lengthy, and its recapitulation here is unnecessary. It is sufficient to say that it was claimed on the part of the State, and the preponderance of the evidence introduced on the trial tended to show, that the accused was drinking or drunk, and visited the dance-hall maintained by the deceased in the city of Macon, on the night of December 25,1901; that there was a large company present; that the accused conducted himself in an improper manner, and was directed to leave the premises by the deceased ; that he was armed with a pistol, and in leaving the hall fired it several times in an anteroom or passageway; that subse
It is very apparent that there is no merit in the ground which we are now considering. It may be that Sellers was a young and inexperienced lawyer, and unable properly to manage a case of the gravity and importance of that which confronted the accused. But that was a matter for the accused and his friends to consider. This court can not, in justice to the public, undertake to discriminate between the professional attainments of different attorneys in the management and conduct even of grave and momentous cases. At one time in the history of the jurisprudence of England, the
Nor is this view affected by the affidavit of counsel who made and withdrew this motion, submitted at the hearing of the motion for a new trial, to the effect that such statement and withdrawal were without the authority and consent of his client, and that the statement was made to keep the jury from being prejudiced against defendant, and that, at the time of making it, he did not know the facts as he knew them -when he made the affidavit. It was his business to know the facts, or not to make the statement. In any event the withdrawal of the motion-became an incident and a part of the trial. He was the representative of the accused; the statement and withdrawal were made in the presence of the accused; and it was therefore his statement and his withdrawal. If we should take into consideration, on a motion for a new trial after conviction, the statement that such withdrawal was made without authority or consent of his client; that the counsel making it was not informed of the true facts at the time; that it was made to prevent prejudice against the accused, the consequence would he that no statement or motion submitted by counsel in the' trial of a case would be binding on an accused, although present, until after he had been personally consulted and had ratified it, and would impute to juries a readiness to violate their solemn obligations to render a verdict according to the evidence. “ When one puts his case in the hands of an attorney for suit, it is a reasonable presumption that the authority he intends to confer upon the attorney includes such action as the latter, in his superior knowledge of the law, may decide to he legal, proper, and necessary in the prosecution of the demand; and consequently whatever adverse proceedings may he taken by the attorney are to be considered, so far as they affect the defendant in the suit, as approved by the client in advance, and therefore as his act, even though they prove to be unwarranted by the law.” 2 Herman on Estoppel and Bes Judicata, § 814. There is neither reason nor precedent for the proposition that when in a legal proceeding a mo
Judgment affirmed.