No. 2676 | Miss. | Mar 15, 1919
Lead Opinion
This is an appeal from a conviction for murder followed by a death sentence.
On the occasion in question, some sort of a show was being given in the town of -Areola with its accompanying crap game, in which game the appellant and Lucius Blevin, among others, were engaged. A controversy arose during the progress • of the game between the appellant and Blevin, which Blevin shortly thereafter reported to the deceased and Tom Williams, both of
“Q. When you saw him next, he was under arrest with Mr. E. L. William's, the dead man? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. Where was he when you saw him there? A. Out there hack of a hoarding house, down there at Areola.
“Q. What was Mr. Williams doing with him? A. Mr. Williams was setting down on an old safe there, and the negro was standing out in front of him.
“Q. What did you do — go up where they were? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. Go ahead and tell what occurred from then on? A. Mr. Williams told me: ‘ Tom, this negro had a pistol here, and he has thrown it away. Let’s look for it. Hold him here until I look for the pistol. ’ And I said: All right. He is just lying, though. He has it around here somewhere himself.’ This negro said, ‘I sent it home by my brother-in-law. ’ I told Mr. Williams he was lying; .that he hadn’t sent it anywhere. He looked around under the house a few minutes and couldn’t find it, and I said: ‘Well, he said he had it. That is sufficient, and he has been toting it around.’ He said, ‘If we get the pistol that will be better.’ Then he said, ‘We will take him on over there to the house,’ and the .negro said, ‘I have my horse here, Mr. Williams,’ and Mr. Williams said, ‘Get the horse, Lucius,’ and this negro, Mat Thomas, I told him to come too. We went across the railroad three or four hundred yards from where we started from, and he ran his hand down in here (indicating), and said his drawers were down. I noticed him by the light from the railroad. We could see*606 by that. It was dark there where we had been. The first thing I knew then he put the gun up to my cheek and shot me like that (indicating), and shot Mr. Williams in the side. I turned around and pulled my gun and made one shot. The first shot I shot in the ground right by him, and the next shot I made he ran off and shot at me twice. I asked Lucius for more shells, -and he said, ‘No, sir. . .
“Q. Who is Lucius? A. Lucius Blevin, a state witness. He said, ‘No sir; I haven’t got any shells.’ He loaded up the second time and came back, and the second shot he run up behind me as I was crossing the railroad and shot me through the hand, and then shot me through the thumb, and Lucius said, ‘Mr. Tom, please come on, that nigger’s going to kill you,’ and caught ahold of me, and I said, ‘Turn me aloose,’ and I went up to the section house and told Mr. Tom about it.”
• On cross-examination this witness further testified that while they were back of the boarding house, and while the appellant was held by Mat Williams and Lucius Blévin, he was struck, but twice only, with the buckle end of a trousers belt, and with nothing else, in order to make him tell where his pistol was.
The appellants evidence was in sharp conflict with that of the state’s witnesses, and, if true, fully supported his claim that he killed the deceased in self-defense. His theory of the case is contained in the following questions and answers which appear in the transcript of his evidence in chief:
“Q. Go ahead and tell the jury all about that; they are going to decide whether you will be hung or not. A. Yes, sir; I will tell them the truth and nothing but the truth. Well, the way it was, from the first beginning, it started about a dollar and a -quarter. Albert Kimberly put a dollar and a quarter down, and Lucius picked it up. Mat said, ‘I shoot a dollar and a quarter.’ He said: ‘No, I don’t shoot it; I put the money down*607 there.’ And he looked around and said, ‘Who got my money?’ The boy said:‘I ain’t got.it; yon ain’t pnt any down there.’ The hoy asked me didn’t he pnt it down there, and I said: ‘Yes, he pnt it down, two solid halves and a quarter. I reckon he did. Lucias that time run around to grab me to cut me, and another fellow run in betwixt us, and said, ‘No, I wouldn’t do anything like that,’ and by that time I went out and got a brick, and he said I drawed a pistol on him. ' I didn’t do that. Time I got out the house Mat come up and said, ‘Boys, I wouldn’t have any trouble.’ I said, ‘I ain’t doing nothing, no use for me to let them run over me. ’ I had a brick in my hand then and never pulled a pistol, at all. After that I went around on the front part, where the show was and went back in the gambling house. That time Mat was up in the box cutting off the game, and finally Mr. Tom came in. and Mat gets down and gives somebody else his game. .Then after he stood around awhile Mr. Tom went to the door and ■ got to whispering around, and Mr. Tom left then. I doii’t know where he went I suspieioned then—
“Q. What Tom was that? A. Mr. Tom Mosely. After I heard that whispering and all going on, I said. ‘Well, that fellow has told him I had a pistol or something.’ That time I goes out then and hides this gun, and time I goes and hides the gun I went back where the boys gambling, standing up in there. After awhile I went back out the door again, and Mr. Williams was standing out there, and he walked up to me.
“Q. Which Williams was that? A. Mr. R. L. Williams. He came up to me and said, ‘Where is the gun "at?’ I said, I haven’t any,’ and he searched me and didn’t find any. He found a schabbard on me, and said, ‘Where that gun at, nigger?’ I said: ‘I haven’t got any gun. I sent it home by my brother-in-law,’ that very way. So I walks on off, and he said, ‘I told you to stand here, not move any more.’ I said, ‘All right,*608 Cap,’ and that time Mr. Williams sent for Mr. Tom, and I said, ‘I am going to stand here and won’t move any more. ’ That time Mr. Tom came np an ousted his gnn and pats it in my face. I said: ‘That’s all right, white folks; I haven’t got a pistol.’ He curses me and says, ‘You son of a hitch! You get it. ’ I said,' I haven’t got any gun.’ He said,‘Boys, get him.’ He said to me, ‘Come around here,’ and I went around there, and he called Mat and Lucius, and they carried me up there to the gin and taken me out there and made me pull iny clothes off, and I begged them -not to whip me and I would tell them where the gun. He said, ‘No, you' don’t know where it is at.’ And they stretched me out, one on my head and one on my feet. Mr. Tom grabbed his gun and hit me once on this side and once on this side (indicating). Mr. Tom grabbed the belt and hit me two licks and the buckle broke off then,- and Mr. R. L.‘ William said, ‘Go in there and get a gin belt. ’ He said ‘No, 1 can’t get in there,’ and that'time Mr. Tom walks up and kicks me here on my mouth. My mouth commenced to bleeding all down here, and I said, ‘Let me ■ up, and I will go and get the gun.’ They let me up then, and I put my clothes back on me. Blood was running down my face, and I said, ‘Let me go get my horse,’ and they told me go get your horse, and I said, ‘All right, sir.’ I went down there, and they wouldn’t let me get the horse.- Mr. Williams had- a flashlight and looked all under the house where the boys was gambling, and he couldn’t find it and searched my horse and couldn’t find it, and he said, ‘That nigger’s got that gun, let’s go carry him back to the gin,’ and told me to get in front. I said: ‘I will get it. Don’t kill me.’ He said, ‘I will kill you if you don’t.’ I said. ‘Lordy, if I don’t get it I am killed, and if I do get it I am killed. ’ Mr. Tom was on the side of me. Mr.' Williams was in front of mé about as far as from here to Mr. Boddie, and this Mat was, behind me, and Mr. Tom on the side*609 of me, and this Lncins in front of me like the gentleman sitting there, and he was leading the horse, and I said, ‘Lord, horse, yon ahont to walk over me,’ and Mr. Williams said, ‘She don’t know yon to-night, does she? I said, ‘No, sir; she don’t know me.’
“Go on and tell it all. A. So that time Mr. Tom shot off, and that time I started to break to rnn. I says: ‘No, don’t rnn. If you do, he will kill yon.’ One mind said, ‘Get yonr gun,’ and that time I eased up to my horse and got my gun from under the pummel of the saddle on my horse, and they makes a shot and I breaks to rnn, and I runs off in the weeds, and they makes four or five shots at me, and I was running, and I made three shots and run off in the weeds then. They shot me here (indicating), and shot me there (indicating). That is all.
“Q. Didn’t yon go hack up there and shoot them some more? A. No, sir; I did not.”
Section 1237, Code of 1906 (1 Hemingway’s Code, section 967), provides that: “Every person who shall unnecessarily kill another, either while resisting an attempt hy such other person to commit any felony, or to do any unlawful act, or after such attempt shall have failed, shall he guilty of manslaughter.”
Judges Etheidge, HoldeN, and SteveNS are of the opinion that the appellant’s contention that under this statute his conviction should have been limited to manslaughter should he sustained, and the judgment of the lower court reversed; their reasons therefor being set forth in a separate opinion.
Judges Sykes. Cook, and Smith are of the opinion that on the evidence it was for the jury to say whether the appellant killed the deceased in the bona-fide resistance of an attempt hy the deceased to do an unlawful act, viz. to force him hy the use of unlawful means to deliver up his pistol, or whether he killed the deceased, not in order to prevent the commission of the unlawful
We find no reversible error at all in tbe other rulings of tbe trial judge of which complaint is made.
Affirmed, and Friday, tbe 29th day of August, 1919, fixed as tbe day for tbe execution of tbe sentence.
Affirmed.
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting). I think tbe judgment of the lower court should be reversed because under tbe statutes, section 1237 and 1044, Code of 1906, sections 967 and 772, Hemingway’s Code, tbe crime committed was manslaughter only.
Tbe facts of this deplorable tragedy as shown by tbe record may be briefly stated as follows: A controversy arose between tbe appellant, Anthony Williams, and another negro by tbe name of Lucius Blevin while they and other negroes were engaged in a crap game. Blevin testified that tbe appellant drew a pistol on bim during tbe difficulty, whereupon be (Blevin) reported tbe matter to Mr. R. L. Williams deputy sheriff there at tbe village of Areola. Tbe deputy sheriff, R. L. Williams, thereupon arrested and searched tbe appellant, and, failing to find a pistol on bim, sent for Mr. Tom Williams, another deputy sheriff, and tbe two, white deputies, accompanied by tbe said Lucius Blevin and another negro by tbe name of Mat Williams, took tbe appellant with them “over tbe creek” back of tbe gin, where it appears, from tbe testimony of tbe state’s witnesses as well as tbe testimony of the appellant, that Mr. Tom
It is conclusively shown by the state’s testimony that the whipping of the appellant in the manner set out was for the purpose of making him disclose the whereabouts of his pistol. The two deputies and the two negroes let the appellant up and went with him toward the house of his brother-in-law where he had stated the pistol was located while he was being whipped upon the ground. After all of the parties had proceeded about three hundred or four hundred yards from the place where the whipping had been administered, there was some brief conversation between the parties, as it appears, regarding a shoyr that was in the village of Areola. The deputies were armed with pistols, and, as they proceeded toward the place where the appellant stated he had left the pistol, the appellant stopped and claimed that his underwear was coming down, reached his hand somewhere in his clothes, and drew a pistol and commenced to shoot, first at Mr. Tom Williams, wounding him, and then shot and killed Mr. R. L. Williams, Mr. Tom Williams then shot and wounded the appellant in three places.
The above statement of the case is based upon the testimony introduced by the state. The testimony introduced by the appellant was disbelieved and disregarded by the jury as it had the authority to do, and therefore is not to be considered as part of the proof in reviewing and discussing this appeal. The facts of the case are limited here to the proof introduced by the state.
■ The state contends that no error was committed in the trial court, and that, even though the appellant had been whipped and was unlawfully mistreated by the deceased and the others in the crowd, still appellant was guilty of murder because he shot and killed the deceased, the deputy sheriff Mr. E. L. Williams, at a time when he was in no imminent danger of losing his own life or suffering great bodily harm at the hands of the deceased or any other person, and that such killing was unnecessary and was done with malice aforethought.
The first contention of appellant that he was acting in self-defense when he shot the deceased because of the unlawful whipping he had received, and which he expected would be repeated upon him again in a few minutes, as soon as the deceased and the other had discovered the lie he had told as to the location of the pistol in order to be let up from the ground, and that he reasonably anticipated this impending danger, and that he was not required by law to wait until lie was in a situation where he could not. defend himself against such treatment, is, I think, untenable because the question of impending danger at the time of the shooting by the appellant was one for the determination .of the jury, and the jury decided this issue against the appellant.
“Be it said to the eternal' credit of the good citizens of Areola that they permitted this defendant to have a fair trial here in a court of justice, rather than take their vengeancé at the hands of an angry 'mob. ’ ’
I disapprove of this character of argument to the jury, and wish to respectfully announce again that prosecuting attorneys should refrain from referring to mobs or mob law in the trial court of a human being in a court of justice. The inferences calculated to be drawn from such comment by prosecuting attorneys are likely to be prejudicial to the rights of the accused in securing a fair and impartial trial of his case. I think it was error in the court to permit the prosecuting xattorney to use the language complained of in the argument of the case before the jury. However, it is unnecessary to discuss Whether or not this error would cause á reversal if there was no other reversible error in the case.
The point advanced by counsel for appellant that the evidence introduced by the state does not warrant a conviction of murder, but at best would only justify a conviction of manslaugher, is based principally upon pur statutes, sections 1044 and 1237, Code of 1906, sections 772 and 967, Hemingway’s Code, which reads as follows:
“Sec. 1044. If any person assault and beat another with a cowhide, whip, or stick, having at the time in his possession a pistol or other deadly weapon, with intent to intimidate the person assaulted, and prevent him from defending himself, he shall, on conviction, be imprisoned in the penitentiary not longer than ten years.”
‘ ‘ Sec. 1237. Every person who shall unnecessarily kill another, either while resisting an attempt by such other person to commit any felony, or to do any unlawful act,*614 or after such attempt shall have failed, shall he guilty of manslaughter. ’ ’
The case presented by the state, and as shown particularly by the testimony of Mr. Tom Williams, one of the deputies who was shot by the appellant, substantially shows that the two armed deputies, one of whom was killed, together with the two negro men, searched the appellant to find his pistol, and, failing in this, they then took him across “the creek,” and while, the two negro men held him down one of the deputies proceeded to whip him for the purpose of making him' tell what he had done with the pistol. In order to he relieved ffom the pain of this unlawful chastisement, the appellant told the officers a lie as to where the pistol was located and offered to go with them to get it. They let him up and proceeded with him under unlawful duress in the mission of getting the pistol, and before they reached the place to which they had started the shooting took place and one of the deputies, Mr. Robert Williams, was killed.
The defendant testified that he was kicked in the face, whipped with the strap, and beat with • a pistol. The jury did not believe him; consequently, I discard his statement as to those things. But I do know from this record as testified to by the state’s witnesses that these two deputies, without any warrant for arrest or seizure and search, arrested the appellant, searched him and proceeded to extort from him by corporal punishment the whereabouts of the pistol to be used as incriminating evidence against him. The appellant made no resistance to the arrest or search. The deputies, acting under the badge of the law, did not then take the prisoner to jail or proceed to charge him in an orderly way with violation of the law, but proceeded and continued to carry out the assault and unlawful mission of compelling the disclosure" of the weapon. It was the duty of these officers to not only refrain from subjecting
That these officers were in danger from the concealed pistol in the clothes of the appellant is quite true, but it must be remembered that the perilous situation was brought' about. entirely by the deceased and his ■ associates. The conduct and proceedings of the Two white deputies and their two negro assistants were unlawful from the beginning of the whipping until the time of the beginning of the whipping until °the time of the fatal shooting. Therefore I think the case comes within section 1237 above referred to, and that the contention made by the appellant that this homicide can only be manslaughter is well taken and should be sustained.
It is urged by the state that the question as to whether or not the appellant was guilty of murder was a question property submitted for the determination of the jury; that it was a question of fact as to whether the appellant shot the deceased with malice aforethought at a time when unnecessary to do so, and after an interval of cooling time between the whipping and the shooting in which the appellant fornied the premeditated design to kill the deceased. I think this contention by the state is unsound, in view of the statute and the uncontroverted facts of the case. Under, section 1237, the killing is declared to be manslaughter if unnecessarily done while resisting the attempt to do an unlawful act dr immediately after such attempt had failed. The appellant fired the fatal shot in this case while the de
The appellant, it appears from this whole record, had no malice or" ill feeling toward the deceased prior to the whipping. They were strangers to each other, and the motive for the shooting was the unlawful treatment imposed upon appellant which continued in -connection with and as part and parcel of the unlawful assault and whipping by the deceased, until the fatal shot was fired. The provocation was sufficient, as a matter of law and facts, to negative an inference of previous malice on the part of • appellant. Evidently the appellant was merely resisting the unlawful acts of the deceased in an effort to free himself from the illegal imposition and further prospective bodily punishment. If he had shot and killed the deceased at the time he was being whipped on the ground, no one would hardly contend it was murder; but it appears that he did not shoot at that time, as he was overpowered and covered by his assailants but he did resist in the only effective manner apparent to him as soon thereafter as possible.! He made no
In Long v. State, 52 Miss. 23" court="Miss." date_filed="1876-04-15" href="https://app.midpage.ai/document/long-v-state-7984614?utm_source=webapp" opinion_id="7984614">52 Miss. 23, in considering the intent and purpose of. section 1237, the court, speaking through Justic Citalmbes, said:
“We must think that the ‘unlawful act’ spoken of means a crime or misdemeanor. The language is ‘to commit a felony, or to do some other unlawful act. ’ The unlawful act, we think, must be of a criminal nature, even though inferior to felony. We think, further, that the killing must take place either during the actual resistance to the unlawful act, or immediately following its defeat and abandonment. If it occurred after the lapse of any considerable period, it would seem im-' possible to divest it of the elements of malice. Thus construed, the statute amounts to this: If I see another engaged in the commission of an offense against the criminal laws and I resist its accomplishment, and in such resistance slay the person so engaged, my crime will be manslaughter and not murder, even though the act of killing was unnecessary to the defeat of his act;*618 and the same result will follow- where the killing ensues instantly after the abandonment by him of his attempt. Because I was engaged, or had just been engaged, in-resisting the doing, by him, of an unlawful act, the law will, to some extent, throw the mantle of charity over the necessary slaughter committéd by me, by reducing my offense from murder to manslaughter. It amounts to a legal imputation to heat of blood for my benefit, whether in point of fact the jury should believe that there was such heat or not.
“The party slaving, however, cannot take shelter under it if the jury should be of opinion that there was actual malice. The killing must have occurred bona fide in the resistance to the unlawful act; or immediately after its defeat, and must have grown out of the commission, or the attempt to commit the act, and not out of any previous ill will, nor any personal grudge then and there engendered. ’ ’
I think the case at bar comes within the intent and purpose of section 1237, Code of 1906. It means that “a legal imputation of heat of blood” is to be indulged in favor of the slayer, where it clearly appears that he did the killing while resisting the commission of the unlawful act, and that the unnecessary slaughter was not committed by him with previous malice or after a considerable time had elapsed between the commission of the unlawful act and the time when the fatal shot was fired. There was no interval of time here in which the slayer might reflect and cool, but the unfortunate killing was done while the unlawful act was actually being committed by'the deceased. It was undoubtedly one and the same unlawful transaction from the time of the whipping until the time of the shooting, which was but a few minutes thereafter. There was no abandonment of the commission of the unlawful act by the deceased. If the appellant had beén released after he was whipped, and any considerable time had elapsed, and he had then
The staute, section 1237, Code of 1906 (section 967, Hemingway’s Code), necessarily implies an intentional killing, otherwise it means nothing; a proposed but unnecessary killing, a killing which but for the statute would be murder; and, since malice is a necessary ingredient of murder, to hold that if the homicide was malicious the satute does not apply would be to leave no field for its operation. If the killing was without malice, it would not be murder, and the statute would not be needed; if the existence of malice excludes its operation, it is repealed by construction. True, one cannot take refuge behind its provisions to wreak a personal pre-existing malice; nor lie in wait, as in the Brown Case, to execute a formed purpose to kill. But when, as here, it is manifest that the intention to kill was formed because of the criminal act of the deceased, in repelling that act the offense, which but for the statute would be murder, is by its plain meaning reduced to manslaughter. Malice is not predicable under the facts of the case before us. Beasley v. State, 64 Miss. 522, 8 So. 234; State v. Hill, 20 N.C. 629" court="N.C." date_filed="1838-12-05" href="https://app.midpage.ai/document/state-v--hill-3676332?utm_source=webapp" opinion_id="3676332">20 N. C. 629, 34 Am. Dec. 396; Cryer v. State, 71 Miss. 467" court="Miss." date_filed="1893-10-15" href="https://app.midpage.ai/document/cryer-v-state-7987490?utm_source=webapp" opinion_id="7987490">71 Miss. 467, 14 So. 261; Ayres v. State, 60 Miss. 709" court="Miss." date_filed="1883-04-15" href="https://app.midpage.ai/document/ayers-v-state-7985861?utm_source=webapp" opinion_id="7985861">60 Miss. 709.
A close examination of the authorities will disclose that, this opinion is not in conflict with the rule as laid down in any of the cases.
I shall not take the time to discuss the distinction between the holding in' the case at bar and the decisions cited as supporting the contrary view; but I may call attention to what must be obvious, that in the Brown Case, 98 Miss. 786" court="Miss." date_filed="1910-10-15" href="https://app.midpage.ai/document/brown-v-state-7990838?utm_source=webapp" opinion_id="7990838">98 Miss. 786, 54 So. 305, 34 L. R. A. (N. S.) 811,
But when the Brown Case is read and digested, it plainly appears that there was proof in the case that the malice aforethought was formed long previous to the time of the' killing and some time before the deceased was in the commission of the unlawful act, and that the malice may have been implied as existing prior to the fatal shooting, that is, that the malice aforethought could have arisen under- the facts there immediately before the shooting took place. But it will he ohservéd that in the Brown Case and in the Long Case, 52 Miss. 23" court="Miss." date_filed="1876-04-15" href="https://app.midpage.ai/document/long-v-state-7984614?utm_source=webapp" opinion_id="7984614">52 Miss. 23, and the other cases cited, there was an interval of time, either before the commission of the unlawful'act by the deceased or immediately thereafter, in which the slayer had sufficient cooling time, or . was already cool, to .deliberately design and execute the ki.ll-ing with malice aforethought; but in the instant case the facts are essentially different, in this, that from the time the unlawful assault of the slayer was commenced and continued by the deceased until the time of the fatal shot, the flayer, having had no previous ill will or malice against the deceased, did not have any interval of considerable time in which to form premeditation and malice against the deceased before the shooting