129 Ga. 777 | Ga. | 1907
The accused was convicted of murder, and sentenced to life imprisonment. He brings error to this court on the refusal ■of the judge below to grant a motion for a new trial. Henry' Ryan, a witness for the State, testified that on Saturday night, between 10 and 11 o’clock, he and the deceased, who-was the wife of the defendant, were on their ivay to a supper at a negro’s house about 85 yards distant from the scene of the killing, when they met the defendant in the road, and he insisted on his wife returning home with him, which she declined to do. While they were quarreling about the matter, the defendant said to the deceased “If you don’t go home with me from here, I will kill you;” whereupon the witness said, “You all stop your foolishness and quit.” The defendant then said “it was man and wife, and everybody ought to let them alone.” The witness then told them when they got throughi
The defendant in his statement claimed that he and his wife were returning from the supper referred to; that his wife, the deceased, was drunk, and that she saw the pistol in his pocket and insisted on firing it; that the deceased snatched the pistol from his pocket, and he then grabbed her to keep her from falling and also from shooting it; that he never got his hand on the pistol at all; and that while they were “tussling,” and he was reaching for the pistol, she stumbled, and the pistol fired while in her hands and shot her. Defendant also stated that the pistol was not in good fix and would not stand cocked. This condition of the pistol was corroborated by other witnesses, one of whom stated that it was a Smith & Wesson make, double-action pattern, and would fire when the trigger was pulled, and also that it was more dangerous than the average pistol, “ because it will shoot of itself.”