Nolen v. State
Nolen v. State
Opinion of the Court
The defendant was indicted and tried for the offense of murder. The jury returned a verdict of guilty of manslaughter, with a sentence of five years. The appeal is from the judgment of conviction and sentence. Held:
The sole basis of this review is that the court erred in overruling the defendant’s motions for directed verdict of acquittal when the State rested its case, and again at the close of all the evidence. Counsel for the appellant bases his argument upon the decisions of Gilbert v. State, 94 Ga. App. 217 (94 SE2d 109) and Jones v. State, 212 Ga. 195 (91 SE2d 514) (the latter a 4-to-3 decision). The Jones case was reversed because the evidence relied upon by the State to establish the fact of the homicide disclosed circumstances of mitigation or justification, and the evidence did not raise a presumption of malice, although the dissenting justices were of the opinion that .the jury was authorized to infer malice upon proof of the killing by a deadly weapon. Since the jury returned a verdict of manslaughter in the case sub judice, the jury could have inferred from the evidence that the defendant acted solely as the result of a sudden, violent and irresistible passion resulting from serious provocation sufficient to excite such passion in a reasonable person. See Code Ann. § 26-1102 (Ga. L. 1968, pp. 1249, 1276). While the evidence here was sufficient to authorize the jury to return a verdict of justifiable homicide, as the defendant contends, yet the evidence was also sufficient to authorize the verdict of guilty of manslaughter, and the lower court did not err in denying the motions for directed verdict.
A motion for rehearing was filed at the very end of the April term and we vacated the judgment of affirmance and withdrew the above opinion. We now adhere to it. Defendant’s motion very strongly insists that the verdict of guilty should be reversed because two theories were presented, one of which was innocence, and that "the justice and humanity of the law compels the acceptance of the theory which is consistent with innocence” and cites in support Davis v. State, 13 Ga. App. 142 (78 SE 866); Rutland v. State, 46 Ga. App. 417, 422 (167 SE 705);
We think that under the evidence here only the jury could weigh the evidence and arrive at a just verdict. This court cannot say as a matter of law that the evidence was exactly the same as to the theories advanced. See in this connection the cases of Golden v. State, 25 Ga. 527; Gay v. State, 173 Ga. 793 (161 SE 603); Smithey v. State, 219 Ga. 247 (132 SE2d 666), which are somewhat similar cases. There was evidence sufficient to show that defendant, who had been having marital difficulties, shot his wife at night after a quarrel while the two were alone at home, while she was intoxicated and after she had sent a minor daughter away from home, and whose whereabouts was unknown to the father, causing him to send a son out to look for the daughter. The defendant’s statement (unsworn) as to the details of the shooting is not very favorable toward support
There was other testimony that six shots were heard — the first two not as loud as the last four. There were no fingerprints found on the rifle, to indicate she ever held it in her hands in firing position, although there was some evidence of a smudged print. The location of the bullet wounds in her body, the location of the projectiles from the rifle (two) and the .38 caliber pistol (four) as found, as well as the direct and circumstantial evidence surrounding this tragedy are such that an acquittal is
Judgment affirmed.
070rehearing
On Motion for Rehearing
Defendant continues to urge that where two theories are presented by the evidence, one of innocence and one of guilt, justice and humanity compels acceptance of the theory of innocence. In most criminal cases the theory of innocence and guilt is present. But in the vast majority of all such cases, it is the jury’s function to determine which theory it will accept. In the case sub judice, in addition to the State’s evidence, the defendant’s statement (unsworn) could have raised grave doubts in the jury’s mind as to his innocence. He stated that he thought he was shot immediately before firing the fatal shot that took his wife’s life. But after it was all over, it was found that he had not been shot. He stated that he fired once as he was turning towards her, and then he had no explanation whatever for three additional shots presumably fired after he had turned toward his wife and was facing her at close proximity. He said he just did not remember. Three of his four shots went into her head and body, and it may be that he was asking the jury to believe that he did not remember firing any of the three shots that went into her head and body and killed her. This may have been the exact truth of the situation, but at the same time, it may not have been the truth, and the jury may have had grave doubts because of this type of statement. The defendant himself was the only eyewitness left in life as to the actual shooting. It is quite likely that the jury looked forward with intense interest to his account of the shooting, so they might determine whether he was justified in shooting and killing his wife. But his failure of memory prevented his giving the jury the
Thus, the jury in this case, in considering the evidence and the defendant’s statement, were not bound to reach the conclusion that there were presented two theories, one of innocence, and one of guilt, whereby they were of such equality that the theory of innocence had to be accepted. This court in reviewing the case is likewise unfettered in its judgment.
Motion for rehearing denied.
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