State v. RobinsonState v. Robinson
The defendant was indicted for murder and found guilty without capital punishment at his trial by jury. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and appeals his conviction and sentence.
On appeal, the defendant relies upon two Bills of Exceptions reserved and perfected during his trial. In his first Bill of Exception the defendant argues the trial judge committed error when he excluded certain testimonial' evidence as being irrelevant. Upon cross-examination of the victim’s sister, counsel for the defense sought to elicit information concerning a prior scar on the victim’s body. The victim’s sister indicated she believed the scar was the result of a prior stab wound. After so indicating, she was asked, “Do you recall the night he was stabbed?”. The State objected and when the Court required counsel for the defense to show the relevancy of this line of questioning, he answered, “Well, we have a case here — I’m not saying this is my defense, but I think the fact that he did have a stab wound, there must be some reason for it.” In his. Per Curiam to this bill of exception, the trial judge stated that this was an old scar which was in no way shown to be related to the victim’s death by gunshot wounds.
Counsel for the defense argues in his brief that he was attempting to delve into the dangerous character of the deceased in order to sustain his self defense argument. See
Defendant’s second Bill of Exceptions was taken to the denial of the motion for new trial. The motion for new trial alleged, “Malice after thought (sic) was not proven beyond a reasonable doubt. In fact, there was no showing by evidence of any malice whatsoever.” The defendant further reiterated his specification of error set forth in Bill of Exceptions No. 1.
We assume that counsel for' defendant intended to contend the State did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the offender had a specific intent to kill or to inflict great bodily harm, See
For the reasons assigned, the conviction and sentence are affirmed.