52 Ga. App. 411 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1936
1. The defendant was indicted for murder, and was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the commission of an unlawful act. It was charged that the assault was made and the killing was done with an automobile driven by defendant. In the motion for new trial complaint is made that certain named jurors were related within the prohibited degree to the prosecutor. One of the jurors, Canady, was alleged to be related to Williams, the prosecutor, as follows: Bee Ann Williams, who was the sister of Sam Williams, the grandfather of the prosecutor, married E. S. Fortner. Mrs. Millie Fortner Frost was a sister of E. S. Fortner, and was the grandmother of the wife of the juror Canady. Another of the jurors, C. T. Blizzard, was alleged to be disqualified, because
2. On account of its brevity, we quote from the entire charge of the court, as follows: “Gentlemen of the jury, the grand jury of your county has returned a bill of indictment against the defendant, charging him with the offense of murder. Counsel for the State and the defendant agree and insist that murder is not involved in this case; and there is only one grade of homicide that is involved, and that is involuntary manslaughter. To that indictment the defendant pleads not guilty, and that forms the issue you are called upon to try. The defendant in this case, as in all criminal cases, enters into the trial of the case with the presumption of innocence in his favor, and that presumption goes with him throughout the entire trial of the case until met and overcome by evidence which satisfies you of his guilt of the crime charged, beyond a reasonable doubt. Moral and reasonable certainty is all that can be attained in a legal investigation. The true question, however, in all criminal cases is, not whether it be possible that the conclusion at which the testimony points may be false, but whether there is sufficient testimony to satisfy you beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty of the crime charged. The defendant has made a statement in your hearing. To that statement you can give just such weight and credit as you think it is entitled to receive. You can believe it in preference to the sworn testimony in the case, and acquit the defendant. Now, gentlemen, the law under which this defendant is being prosecuted is as follows: Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of a human creature, without malice, either express or implied, and without any mixture of deliberation whatever, which may be voluntary upon a sudden heat of passion, or involuntary in the commission of an unlawful act, or a lawful act without
This defendant, if guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the commission of an unlawful act, as found by the jury, was guilty because his conduct on the occasion of the death of the deceased amounted to a violation of some law of this State. The charge failed to tell the jury what laws might be considered by them in determining whether the actions of the defendant on that occasion were or were not unlawful. Nowhere did the court give the rules of law applicable to the facts as developed by the evidence, but merely stated to the jury that “if the homicide was unlawful” or was in the “commission of an unlawful act,” it would be involuntary manslaughter. “The office of a charge by the court is to give to the jury such instruction, touching the rules of law pertinent to the issue involved in the pending trial, as will enable them intelligently to apply thereto the evidence submitted, and from the two constituents, law and fact, make a verdict.” Rouse v. State, 2 Ga. App. 184 (58 S. E. 416); Nelson v. State, 124 Ga. 8 (52 S. E. 20); Thomas v. State, 95 Ga. 484 (22 S. E. 315). A charge should instruct the jury as to the rules of law which apply to the various
Judgment reversed.