96 So. 451 | Ala. Ct. App. | 1922
The judgment in this case has heretofore been reversed by this court. On application to the Supreme Court for certiorari by the state, writ was awarded, and a judgment there rendered remanding the cause to this court for further consideration. 4 Div. 15,
"I have heard what Mr. Crowe testified about. My judgment is they shot at us 25 or 30 times. We stopped and came back to where they were. When we go back there, Crowe changed his pistol from his right to left hand and took out a pair of handcuffs, and says, 'Put your damn arms in there,' and we both stuck our arms out, and he said, 'Where is that damn still,' and I said, 'We ain't got any still,' and he said, 'You are a God-damned liar; if you don't tell where it is I will kill you,' and he then took his pistol back in his right hand and held it up to my head and said, 'God damn you, go back where that still is.' We did go back to the still."
Defendant's counsel then asked:
"I will ask you if you were frightened at that time?"
The state objected to this question. The defendant's counsel stated to the court what he expected the answer to be, but the court sustained the objection, and the defendant excepted. Crowe then on being recalled testified on this point over the objection and exception of defendant:
"They carried us back in the swamp about 30 or 40 yards from where we caught them and showed us a pot still where they said they made whisky."
The defendant moved to exclude the whole answer, assigning proper grounds, and, on this motion being overruled, moved to exclude that part of the answer as follows: "Where they said they made whisky."
The question first to arise is: Did the court err in refusing to permit the defendant to testify, under the surrounding circumstances, that he was frightened when he showed the officers the still and said they made whisky on the still? If the result of the fear in defendant's mind arising out of and from the surrounding circumstances and threats had been only to cause defendant to lead the officers to a still located in the woods near by where they then were, the mental status of defendant engendered by the shooting, arrest, handcuffs, and threats would not for that reason have rendered that part inadmissible, the still itself being corroborative of the act of disclosure, and so much of the confession as was corroborated by the still itself was admissible, regardless of its involuntary nature. Gay v. State,
The court in its oral charge instructed the jury as follows:
"It is up to you to say whether or not, under all the testimony in the case, the statements so given by them were voluntary, or whether they were induced and secured under such circumstances as to show they were in fear, put in fear by reason of some act or conduct on the part of the person to whom, or in whose presence, the statements are alleged to have been made, whether or not they were induced to make these statements by reason of threats or by reason of holding out to them some reward or hope thereof."
"If the latter, that is, if the defendant at the time and on the occasion when they made the statements, if they did make them, were in fear, were induced and secured to make them by reason of threats, some fear of some injury to themselves, or by reason of any promises on the part of the officers in the nature of a reward, or they held out such hope of reward on their part as to induce these defendants to make the statements, why, then, such statements could not be considered and weighed by you gentlemen when you come to determine the guilt or innocence of the defendants in this case." *87
"But if, under all the circumstances, taking all the testimony that is introduced with reference to the circumstances under which these statements were made, when weighed and considered by you, if it is your judgment they were voluntarily made by defendants, they were not made under such circumstances as to show they were not in fear, or any threats were made to induce them to make such statements, or that any promise of reward, or hope of reward, were held out to them in order to induce them to make such statements, then, in that event, if you are satisfied for the testimony in the case that these statements were in truth and in fact made, why, then, in that event, you would weigh and consider such statements along with the other evidence in the case, giving to the statements such weight and such credit as you deem it is entitled to, under all the circumstances."
The foregoing excerpts from the court's oral charge, to which exception was reserved, shows that the question of the admissibility of the statements as to their voluntary nature was submitted unreservedly to the jury.
In Bob v. State,
"Whether the confessions were made through fear, or from promise of favor, was a question affecting the admissibility of the testimony, and was for the court. * * * The charge asked by the defendant would have referred this question to the jury, and was therefore properly refused."
In Redd v. State,
"It is a well-established maxim of the law that the admissibility of evidence is always a question to be determined by the court, and its weight or credibility is for the determination of the jury. It is for the court, therefore, to say whether the confessions of a prisoner are voluntary or involuntary, and this question, being judicially settled, cannot be reviewed by the jury."
In McKinney v. State,
"The question exclusively for the determination of the court."
To the same effect are the holdings in Hunt v. State,
"Prima facie they were admissible. The credibility of the witnesses, their bias, if any, relationship to the deceased, the truth of the confessions themselves, the weight to be given to them, were questions to be considered and determined by the jury under the circumstances."
That is the rule — admissibility for the court; weight and credibility for the jury. In Jackson v. State,
"The determination of this inquiry, as the determination in respect to the admissibility and competency of all evidence, lies within the province of the court."
In Young Griffin v. State,
It is unnecessary, we think, at this time to pass upon the admissibility of the confessions claimed, as on another trial other and further facts may develop.
For the errors pointed out, the judgment is reversed, and the cause is remanded.
Reversed and remanded.
MERRITT, J., not sitting.