Hall v. State
Hall v. State
Opinion of the Court
Wright Hall was charged with committing the offense of assault with intent to murder by shooting John Armstrong with a pistol on July 5, 1930, in Miller county. A jury found the defendant guilty and recommended that he be punished as for a misdemeanor, and the court sentenced him to serve twelve months on the State farm. He excepts to the judgment overruling his motion for a new trial.
John Armstrong, sworn for the State, testified in part as follows: "He [the defendant] shot me with a pistol in Miller county, Georgia, on July 5, 1930. He shot me in the daytime, early in the morning. It was at the house where I was living. . . I have not done anything to him. I walked into the house, and a woman was in there, and I told her to come and cook my breakfast. The woman was Lula Hill. . . He [the defendant] said to me: ‘What do you want to see that woman about?’ And I begun to look at him, and about the time that I got half turned he shot me. He hit me in my low bowels. The ball went through me, , , I did not have any weapons at the time Wright Hall
The part of the defendant’s statement material to the issues raised in this case is as follows: “John Armstrong . . come on the porch . . just a cursing Lula Hill, . . and Lula Hill run out, and he come after me with a chair, and run me up in the corner, and was trying to hit me with the chair, and I shot him. If I had not shot him he would have killed me with the chair. . . I did not know he was mad with me.” Lula Hill, sworn for the State in rebuttal, testified in part as follows: “Wright Hall got there first that morning. John Armstrong come, and me and Wright Hall was sitting on a table. John Armstrong come in and told me that Annie Butler said come on and get breakfast. I saw they were going to fight, and I run out. I did not see Wright Hall with a pistol before I left. He done the shooting in the house and come out with the pistol in his hand. . . Wright Hall was running backwards with his hand in his pocket, and I run out of the house. . . I left because I thought they were going to fight. Lottie McGrift said to John Armstrong not to come in there and have any fuss. . . I was a good piece from the house when the pistol fired. . . 'Wright Hall was staying with my uncle, Dump McGrift. . . I don’t know what John Armstrong and Wright
In his brief, counsel for plaintiff in error says: “The State’s evidence, incredible of course, made out a case of assault with intent to murder, but we insist that the State’s version of the difficulty is too unreasonable to be given any credence. . .” The State’s evidence did make out a case of assault with intent to murder, and the credibility of the witnesses is a matter peculiarly for the consideration of the jury. Therefore we are constrained to hold that the trial judge did not err in overruling the general grounds of the motion for a new trial.
Special ground 1 avers that the court erred in charging the law, of voluntary manslaughter, for the reason that this law was not involved in the case. The evidence refutes this contention, and there is no merit in the ground.
The first assignment of error under special ground 2 is the same as that in the preceding ground, and there is no merit in it.
The decision in the case of Deal v. State, 145 Ga. 33 (88 S. E. 573), unequivocally refutes the contention made in the second assignment under special ground 2, that the court, after charging section 65 of the Penal Code, erred in not qualifying, in connection therewith, the part relating to “provocation by words, threats, menaces,” etc., in the manner indicated in that ground. We quote from the headnotes of that decision as follows: “ 1. On the trial of one for murder, where the evidence of the defendant’s statement at the trial would authorize the jury to find that the person killing acted in self defense on account of a reasonable fear aroused in his mind by words, threats, or menaces, in connection with the other facts in the case, it is not erroneous for the court, in instructing the jury on the law of voluntary manslaughter, as contained in the Penal Code of 1910, § 65, to fail or refuse to charge in
Special ground 3 complains that the court’s charge upon justifiable homicide, which was substantially in the language of the Penal Code (1910), § 70, deprived the defendant of his defense that he shot under the “fears of a reasonable man.” There is no merit in the ground.
It is averred in special ground 4 that in following his charge upon the law of justifiable homicide with a charge in the language of section 71 of the Penal Code (1910), the “court gave the jury two conflicting rules of law” and thereby confused the jury. In Palmour v. State, 116 Ga. 269, 271 (42 S. E. 512), the court said that section 71 must be considered in connection with section 70 “in every case to which it is applicable.” The assignment is without merit.
It appears from special ground 5 that after charging the jury on voluntary manslaughter in the language of section 65 of the Penal Code (1910), the court charged the law of justifiable homicide as laid down in section 70 of the Penal Code, and followed
Judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.