171 Ga. 655 | Ga. | 1930
The Court of Appeals!certified to this court the following question: “Can a defendant in a felony case be legally convicted of the offense charged, where., the only evidence directly connecting him with the offense charged is the testimony of several accomplices, and where the only corroboration of the testimony of each accomplice is the testimony of the other accomplices?” In this State the only statute relative to the question propounded is found in the Denal Code (1910), § 1017, as follows: “The testimony of a single witness is generally sufficient to establish a fact. Exceptions to this rule are made in .specified cases, such as to convict of treason or perjury, and in any case of felony where the only witness is an accomplice; in these.cases (except treason) corroborating circumstances may dispénse with another witness.” On the argument it was urged that the testimony of the accomplice amounted to “nothing,” and that to corroborate such testimony with the testimony of another accomplice would be to add nothing to nothing, the result still being nothing. Counsel for the ac
That argument was again answered by Mr. Justice Lamar in
It is insisted by counsel for plaintiff in error that what was said in the opinion just quoted was obiter dicta and not binding. That question was considered by the court when the Stone case was decided. Stone was indicted for subornation of perjury, and one of the witnesses testifying against him was the person charged with perjury. The court first entered upon a discussion as to whether or not the perjurer would be considered in law as an accomplice of the suborner, and held that the perjurer “was not a technical accomplice” of the suborner, and then said that on that account “it would be unnecessary to consider the necessity for corroboration, but for the fact that the plaintiff vn error raised the point both by requests to charge and also in an attach on the verdict as being contrary to law." Thus it will be seen that the entire court of six
As we construe the Slone ease, supra, the portion of the opinion quoted was not obiter dicta. But if it be conceded that this conclusion is incorrect, nevertheless the reasoning is sound, and is adopted as a proper answer to the question propounded. So we answer that a defendant in a felony case may be legally convicted of the offense charged, where the only evidence directly connecting him with the offense charged is -the testimony of several accomplices, and where the only corroboration of the testimony of each accomplice is the testimony of the other accomplices.