90 Va. 99 | Va. | 1893
delivered the opinion of the court.
The prisoner, Robert L. Tilley, was tried in the circuit court of Carroll county for the murder of one Louisa Haynes. He was found guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced to be hanged. His case was then brought, by writ of error, to this court, where the judgment of the circuit court was affirmed on the 23d of June, 1892. See 89 Va., p. 186. That decision having been rendered by a court of three judges, it was deemed best, in view of the gravity of the crime and peculiar circumstances of the case, to order a rehearing; and it has accordingly been reheard before a full bench.
The account of the finding of the body is as follows: On the evening of Thursday, November 17, 1887, a Mr. Coe, who lived 200 yards from the spot where the body was found, discovered that the woods were on fire on Mix Short’s land. He dispatched a messenger for Short, and went himself with his boys and surrounded the fire, which had burnt over about three-quarters of an acre or an acre of ground. 'When Short came they went back to the fire and saw the body of the de
A diagram of the locus quo shows that the State line forms with the Fancy Gap and Green Hill roads almost a right triangle, of which the Fancy Gap road may be called the altitude, the State line the base, and the Green Hill road the hypothe-nuse. From the chestnut log at the intersection of the Fancy Gap road there was a blind path which came out into the Green Hill road some 150 or more yards nearer the Fancy Gap road than the old wood road, in which the body was found, and the old wood road came into the Green Hill on the opposite side.
There was found on the Green Hill road, on the morning after the murder, between the point where the wood road on which the body was found, left the Green Hill road and in the direction of the Fancy Gap road, for a distance of about 200 yards, the tracks of a man and woman on opposite sides of the road going in the same direction and towards the old wood road, but no tracks were seen on the wood road. The woman’s track was a No. 4 shoe, and the man’s track an 8 or 9, and looked as if
The body being found, an inquest was held the next day, and the verdict of the coroner’s jury was that the deceased came to her death fro.m the effects of a pistol wound in the head, fired by the prisoner.
A hundred or more people attended the inquest, and strong threats were made of lynching the Tilley boys, especially the prisoner, some persons going far enough to twist hickory withes into a rope with which to hang the prisoner if he should be brought to the spot.
A posse of men were verbally directed by a justice of Carroll county to go to the house of the prisoner’s mother in North Carolina, about two and a half miles from the spot where the body was lying, and arrest the Tilley boys — James, Joseph, and the prisoner. They went to the house and found the family at dinner in the cellar, which was used as a dining room. Joe Tilley had just finished eating when the men arrived, and he went- out first and invited them into the house. James Tilley next went up stairs. As soon as Joe Tilley and the men got into the house the leader of the men said: “I arrest you, Bob Leake Tilley, for the murder of Lou Haynes.” These words were heard by Mrs. Gordon, who was in the cel
Now upon this state of facts, for it must be observed that it is the facts proved, and not the evidence merely, which are certified, is it established beyond a reasonable doubt that the prisoner killed the deceased ? We think not. That there are circumstances which afford strong ground of suspicion cannot be denied. But circumstances of suspicion merely, without more conclusive evidence, have never been held sufficient to justify conviction. Where, indeed, all the circumstances of time, place, motive, means, opportunity, and conduct, says a learned author speaking of cirournstancial evidence, concur in pointing out the accused as the perpetrator of the crime, it must produce a moral, if not absolute, certainty of guilt. 1 Starlde, 491. Dean’s Case, 924.
And then as to his conduct, what is there in it except his flight, which has already been explained, that could be objected to ? From Thursday about sundown to the time of the attempted arrest he had been in North Carolina several miles from the scene of the inquest, and for aught that appears in the record, knew nothing of it, and therefore could not be expected to be found among those who were in pursuit of the criminal.
But where is the proof of either opportunity or means? Is it anywhere shown by a track or otherwise that he was ever nearer than a half mile of the scene of death ? or is it anywhere shown that the killing was done with a pflstol rather 'than a gun? On the contrary, is it not patent from the testimony of all three of the witnesses who testify on the point that they thought the report which they heard was produced by the discharge of a gun, and not of a pistol. Indeed, while all of them say it was produced by a gun or a pistol, the witness Smith says that “ he took it to be the report of a rife fired by some hunter.”
Now in the absence of all these inculpatory circumstances, without a single circumstance to connect him with the killing, with the track of the only person who seems to have been walking with a womau indicating a different person, ought we to infer from the mere facts that he was the last person seen with the deceased at a distance of one and a half miles from the spot where the body was found and has failed to give an account of the circumstances under which he left her, and the fact that he was seen a short time after the supposed time of the killing on the road which leads by, and within 154 yards of the place where the body was found, that he was the murderer?
It follows that the judgment of the circuit court of Carroll must be reversed and the case must be remanded for a new trial to be had therein.
JuDfiMÉNT REVERSED.