Tuck v. State
Tuck v. State
Opinion
First degree murder; sentence: life imprisonment.
During the early morning hours of September 29, 1978, the appellant shot and killed his ex-wife, Helen Tuck, with a sixteen-gauge shotgun at her home in Birmingham.
Prior to the fatal shooting, the appellant and the deceased had been together at a local lounge where they had had an argument. It appears that the couple had been recently divorced. The evidence is undisputed that the appellant committed the crime and that the State presented sufficient evidence to establish a prima facie case. Consequently, a more complete rendition of the facts is unnecessary.
The questions and answers complained of are:
"A. A contusion by definition is a breakage of blood vessels beneath the skin without breaking the skin and it is consistent with some form of blunt injury.
"Q. Could it be consistent with a blow of the fist?
"MR. PICKARD: Objection.
"THE COURT: Overruled.
. . . . .
"A. It could be.
"Q. These injuries that you described around the neck, could they be consistent with fingernails, caused by someone's hands around one's neck?
"A. They could.
"MR. PICKARD: We object.
"THE COURT: Overruled."
The trial court committed no error in allowing the witness to answer the first question quoted above. The qualifications of Mr. Glass as an expert witness were *Page 1242
extensive and were stipulated to by the appellant. He was certainly qualified to describe the nature and extent of the wounds and injuries found on the deceased's body and to state his opinion as to the manner or means by which they could have been inflicted. White v. State,
The appellant's objection to the second question and answer above was raised after the witness had answered. There was no motion to exclude the answer. The objection therefore came too late. Hicks v. State, Ala.Cr.App.,
We likewise note that both objections above were general. General objections to evidence are unavailing if the evidence is admissible for any purpose. Nichols v. State,
"Q. How did he [appellant] appear to you?
"A. Really, it only appeared to me that he was in anger. Mad."
We find no error on the part of the trial judge in this instance. The law in Alabama is clear that a witness may testify whether another person appeared to be mad or angry.Tagert v. State,
"Human emotions and human passions are not, in themselves, physical entities, susceptible of proof, as such. Like the atmosphere, the wind, and some acknowledged forces in nature, they are seen only in the effects they produce. Pleasure, pain, joy, sorrow, peace, restlessness, happiness, misery, friendship, enmity, anger, are of this class. So, tenderness, sympathy, rudeness, harshness, contempt, disgust, the outcrop of emotional status, cannot, in their constitution, be made so far physical facts, or entities, as to become the subject of intelligible word description. They are proved by what is called opinion evidence. Not the mere unreasoning opinion, or arbitrary conclusion of the witness, but his opinion based on experience and observation of the conduct, conversation, and facial expression of others, in similar emotional conditions. Facial expression and vocal intonation are so legible, as that brutes comprehend them; and yet human language has no terms by which they can be dissected, and explained in detail. The reasoning in such cases is a posteriori, and the major proposition is but the sum or resultant of every one's experience and observation. . . ."
The appellant also contends the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury that voluntary intoxication may negate the first degree murder elements of premeditation and deliberation. However, the appellant did not request the trial court to so instruct the jury, nor did he submit a written charge covering that proposition. Without an exception to the oral charge being raised, neither of those assertions may be considered on appeal. Cox v. State, *Page 1243
AFFIRMED.
All the Judges concur.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Gabe Peter Tuck v. State.
- Cited By
- 13 cases
- Status
- Published