38 S.E.2d 750 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1946
1. The evidence sustains the view that the defendant conspired with three others to commit the robbery charged, and that he was constructively present at a convenient distance, aiding and abetting in the commission thereof.
2. Unless an issue in the trial of a case depends wholly upon circumstantial *43 evidence, it is not reversible error for the trial judge to fail to charge the law applicable to circumstantial evidence.
3. Proof of the corpus delicti by aliunde evidence and a plenary confession on the part of the defendant are sufficient to sustain a conviction, without further corroboration. In such a situation it is not error for the trial judge to fail to charge that the confession must be corroborated.
2. As to the first special ground, the evidence, from no view of the case, is wholly dependent upon circumstantial evidence. It is never error to fail to charge the law of circumstantial evidence, unless the question at issue depends wholly upon such evidence. We lay down this general principle of law without any discussion and without any citation of authority other thanAdsmond v. State,
3. In special ground 2, able counsel for the defendant earnestly argues that the verdict should be reversed, because the court failed to charge the law relating to confessions, and the weight which the jury should give to a confession in considering the case. This argument is based largely on the last sentence of the Code, § 38-420: "A confession alone, uncorroborated by any other evidence, shall not justify a conviction." The appellate courts have many times held that proof of the corpus delicti by aliunde evidence is sufficient corroboration of a confession. Without here again calling attention to the many decisions in support of this statement, we deem it sufficient for those who are interested in any further pursuit of the question, to refer to the annotations of the Code, § 38-420, under the catchwords "Corpus delicti," p. 412, and "Corroboration," pp. 413-415. We further find on this question, in the annotations of the Code, § 38-401, under the catchword "Charge," that it is the general law that a failure to charge on a confession, in the absence of a request, is no cause for a new trial. The defendant invokes in support of his contention and as an exception to the general rule the decision in Lucas v. State,
Judgment affirmed. Broyles, C. J., and MacIntyre, J.,concur. *47