181 Ga. 68 | Ga. | 1935
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting. It is unnecessary to cite the numerous decisions of this court which have announced and several times forcibly reiterated the proposition that it is the right of the jury (after having determined that the defendant is guilty of murder) to say, by their recommendation of life imprisonment or to the mercy of the court (if either be stated in their verdict), that the defendant not be electrocuted. Any intimation by the court that in the slightest degree tends to prevent the jury from exercising their right to substitute life imprisonment for capital punishment impinges upon the unqualified right of the jury to relieve the accused from a sentence of death and to allow him at least to retain his life. Under all the previous decisions of this court, the trial court is to leave the jury to exercise its prerogative without even the slightest suggestion of any reason which might tend in any degree to induce the jury to refuse the recommendation. In my opinion, when the judge told the jury that “In all eases it is the right and province of the jury, in the event they convict the defendant, to recommend that he be imprisoned for life, or recommend him to the mercy of the court, which would mean that he would be imprisoned for life, unless pardoned” (italics mine), he at least suggested to the jury one reason why a recommendation to life imprisonment would be ineffectual, from which it would naturally follow in the minds of the jury that the de
Lead Opinion
After careful consideration of the motion for a new trial, the court is unanimously of the opinion that no reason appears why the judgment refusing a new trial should be reversed on the general grounds of the motion, or, in so far as sufficient to raise a question for decision, on the special grounds other than ground 7. The majority of this court are of the opinion that ground 7, which complains that the judge in his charge intimated or expressed an opinion in its nature interfering with the unqualified right of the jury to determine for itself, either with or without reason, whether the defendant will suffer life imprisonment instead of being executed, is without merit.
Judgment affirmed.