Brown v. State
Brown v. State
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff in error at the Fall term, 1901, of the Circuit Court of Putnam county, was indicted for, and tried and convicted of, murder in the first degree, and from the death sentence imposed sued out this writ of error.
The defendant was a witness in his own behalf, and on cross examination admitted that he was examined a® a witness at the coroner’s inquest held over the body of Harry E. Wesson, the deceased. He was asked if certain stated, questions were not propounded to him at that time, and if he did not answer them in certain stated language, which he answered in the negative. Miss Grace E. Rep Logie, the stenographer who took the testimony at the coroner’s inquest, was offered as a witness by the State, and the State also offered the testimony of the defendant given at that time which had been written out in full, and
The defendant moved for a new trial upon grounds questioning the sufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict, and upon the exception taken to the ruling denying this motion another assignment of error is taken. The court has carefully considered the evidence» and finds that under the well-settled rules of law, the ruling denying the motion for a new trial must be affirmed. There is ample testimony to prove the corpus delicti; that is, that the deceased Harry E. Wesson came to his death by the criminal agency of another. The dead body was found and identified and the proof shows that deceased came to his death from a pistol shot wound, by the hand of another. There is very little testimony to connect the defendant with the crime, aside from the extra judicial confession, but as the corpus delictivas proven by other evidence, this confession of the defendant, if believed by the jury to have been made and to be true, is sufficient to authorize his conviction. Gantling v. State, 41 Fla. 587, 26 South. Rep. 737. The confession attempted to 'he proven in evidence is full and complete; the jury evidently believed that defendant made it, and that it was true; they have acted upon it by finding the defendant guilty, and the verdict has been approved by the Circuit Judge. Under these circumstances an appellate court
We find that the stenographer’s report of the testimony, consisting of one hundred and ten type-written pages, is incorporated in the transcript. The testimony must be and is in this case evidenced by bill of exceptions. This report, therefore, has no proper place in the transcript for this court, and the court will exclude the cost of this matter in taxing the costs of this case. Tarrance v. State, 43 Fla. 446, 30 South. Rep. 685; Mitchell v. State, 43 Fla. 584, 31 South. Rep. 242.
The judgment of the Circuit Court is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- J. B. Brown, in Error v. The State of Florida, in Error
- Cited By
- 6 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Parties are not permitted in an appellate court to avail themselves of objections to questions propounded to witnesses in the trial court, upon grounds not mentioned in the objections interposed to such questions in the trial court. 2. A conviction for murder may be had upon the voluntary extra judicial confession of the accused that he committed the crime, whore the corpus delicti is proven by other credible evidence, and the jury believe that such confession was made by the accused and that it is true. 3. The stenographer’s report of testimony filed by him in the trial court forms no part of the record for the appelate court upon writ of error, and if copied into the transcript the cost of same will not he taxed . against the State or county in the appellate court, in criminal cases. 4. Evidence examined and found sufficient to support the verdict.