43 Fla. 584 | Fla. | 1901
The plaintiff in error, William Mitchell, or Will Mitchell, as he is called in the indictment, was indicted and tried for, and convicted of, murder in the first degree for the homicide of one Aaron Hines, with recommendation to mercy, and sentenced to life imprisonment at the Fall term, 1900, of the Circuit Court of Escambia county, and from such sentence took writ of error here.
After two witnesses for the State had testified in-substance that they were present with the deceased and the defendant at an entertainment at the house of one Gaines on the night of the homjcide, and that at said entertainment, some hours prior* to the homicide, they were present when the deceased, 'in play, fastened a spring clasp from a suspender on the ear of the defendant, the deceased calling it a “kissing bug,” and that a few words were passed about it between the deceased and the defendant, the latter saying to the former that “he would get him for it,” or “would see him -again,” the State Attorney asked of one of such witnesses the following question: “What was Mitchell’s manner at that time?” and of the other witness: “What was Mitchell’s manner at the time the above remarks were passed; what kind of humor did he seem to be in?” These questions-
At the trial the defendant' took the stand as a witness on his own behalf and testified in substance: That while he was sitting down at the entertainment, called a mite meeting, with o-ne girl by his side and another in front of him, the deceased put a kissing bug on his ear; that it hurt so bad he jumped up, took it off and threw it down and asked deceased what he did it for, and that deceased then- asked him if he didn’t like it, and' on his saying “no,” the deceased struck him, in the fhce and said “find it then,” and said I had to find it, and struck him in the face two or three times; that the whole crowd of boys were there, and they said “make him find it;” that he broke out of the crowd and remained aloof from, them the rest of the evening; that one of the girls with him was named “Bama,” and was near enough if noticing, to have seen deceased strike him in the face; that the homicide took place on the street after the entertainment had
No ground of objection being suggested or made at the trial to the question: “Where is Bama now ?” no question is presented that an appellate court can review. Ever since the case of Gladden v. State, 12 Fla. 562, it has been the settled rule of this court that general objections to questions addressed to witnesses, without stating the precise ground of objection, are vague and nugatory and are without weight before an appellate court. While it might have been improper and erroneous had the court embodied the argument of the State’s counsel in the form of a charge, as being a rule of law, yet because the State Attorney reasoned fallaciously or illogically from the facts furnishes no ground for reversal of the trial court for refusing to stop such argument. Juries are not bound by, and do not usually adopt or act upon illogical deductions from the evidence presented to them in argument by counsel, and it is not reversible error for the court to refuse to interfere with the argument of counsel because it is illogical or not reasonably inferrable from the facts. Missouri Pac. Ry Co. v. White, 80 Texas 202, 15 S. W. Rep. 808; State v. Toombs, 79 Iowa, 741, 45 N. W. Rep. 300.
The sixth and last assignment of error is the order of the court overruling the defendant’s motion for new trial. The grounds of this motion were: 1st. That the verdict was contrary to the law as given by the court. 2nd. The verdict was contrary to the evidence. 3rd. Upon the ground of newly-discovered evidence. In support of the claim of newly-discovered evidence there were filed two affidavits the first by one of the counsel for the defendant, Mr. Brainard, in which he swears that he is one of the
Finding no errors the judgment of the court below is hereby affirmed. ,
We feel it our duty to mention the fact that out of the one hundred and fifteen pages of typewriten matter comprising the transcript of the record sent here in this case, seventy-four pages of it consists of the stenographer’s notes of the questions and anwers of the witnesses at the trial, certified by such stenographer, that have been improperly copied into- the record proper, in addition to the evidence in the case in narrative form duly and prop