53 So. 253 | Ala. | 1910
The solicitor asked the state’s witness Sadie Clerkley the following question: “What did Belle Kirklin say, after she came up, about John Kirklin, the defendant coming to her house to get a gun?”
After defendant had testified as a witness in his own behalf, the court allowed the state, over the objection of the defendant, to offer the evidence of one N. M. Davis to the effect that said witness knew the general character of defendant in the community in which he lived, and that it was bad. There was no error in this ruling of the court. The defendant, having made himself a witness in his own behalf, was subject to impeachment, and general bad character affects one’s credibility as a witness.
The deceased was shot twice by defendant at close range, inflicting such wounds that he fell on the spot and had to be carried home by other parties, having corn sacks stretched under him. This was done on Saturday, and he died from the effects of these wounds on
- Charge 4, given at the request of the state, was erroneous, and should have been refused. The fact that the jury might believe, from the evidence, that the defendant killed Tom Brasher by shooting him with a gun, with malice aforethought, could not make the defendant guilty of -murder. They might have believed it, and it might not- have been true. If the charges meant to say that, if the-jury believed from the evidence that defendant did as stated, then they must find him guilty ;of murder,- then the charge was at fault in fading to slate that- they must believe it beyond a reasonable -doubt, as that is the measure of proof demanded in a criminal case before conviction can be had,
Reversed and remanded.