Williams v. State
Williams v. State
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiff in error was indicted, tried and convicted of murder in the first degree in the Marion Circuit Court, and the sentence of death was passed upon him. He has sued out a writ of error to this court, ;and various assignments of error are made here.
We are confronted with an error in the record before us which, according to well established rules of law, will necessitate • a reversal of the judgment. A witness — Enoch Butler — was introduced by the State, .and testified that he was at the place called the commissary on the afternoon of the day the deceased was killed and saw the accused there. He also stated that he was standing at the east side of the house between sundown and dusk, and the deceased was paying off hands; heard him say something about not paying off the hands that night, and defendant said: “I am going to have my money, you d-d old son of a b-h; if you don’t pay me I am going to kill you.” He was also asked how he happened “to beat that commissary that evening,” and stated that he went there to collect for some pork, potatoes and things he had sold to the hands getting cross-ties. On cross-examination the witness was asked “what kind of a building was that commissary?” The State objected to the
We do not deem it necessary to refer to the other assignments of error made.
The judgment is reversed and a new trial awarded,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Johnnie Williams, alias Ben Lattimore, in Error v. The State of Florida, in Error
- Cited By
- 4 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. The rule is well settled that a party has no right to cross-examine any witness except as to facts and circumstances connected with the maters stated in his direct examination, and if he wishes to examine him as to other matters he must make the witness his own. But this rule pern its an inquiry on cross-examination into all the facts and circumstances connected with the matters of the direct examination. 2. For the State a witness testified that he was standing' at the east ' side' of a house called a commissary where deceased was killed, and saw the accused there a short time before the killing; that while at the building called the commissary, witness heard the accused use language indicating a purpose to kill the deceased, such as “if you don’t pay me. I am going to kill you.” On cross-examination the witness was asked what kind of a building was-that commissary, and the question was excluded by the court on the ground that it was not a proper cross-examination: Held, To be error. The question was not only a legitimate cross-examination, but it can not be said to be immaterial, as the witness’ answer may have been the means of establishing the fact that he was not at the house, and did not hear and see what he related.