Keith v. State
Keith v. State
Opinion of the Court
Leonard Keith was indicted for the offense of murder. The indictment charged that he did kill and murder Bunn Green by striking him on the head with a piece of iron, from which wound he died. The defendant was convicted, with a recommendation by the jury to mercy, and was sentenced to the penitentiary for life. He made a motion for new trial, which was overruled, and he excepted.
From the testimony of Lain Crumpleton it appears that he and the defendant went to Rome on July 4, for the purpose of buying groceries for Crumpleton. Upon arrival at Rome they met the deceased, who seemed to be drunk, and after a short conversation with Green the defendant said, “’Let’s go and get some whisky— liquor.” The three went in the automobile to a spot on the Radio Springs road; they got out of the ear and walked up a trail leading up a hollow. Crumpleton saw the deceased with a knife in his hand, and told the defendant of it. The deceased and the defendant walked ahead of Crumpleton; defendant came back and asked Crumpleton if he should hit the deceased. The defendant had some object in his hand, which was the crank-handle of the automobile. A few minutes later the witness Crumpleton said he heard two licks, and Keith came running back. They went back to the car and drove to the home of the defendant. Crumpleton was a farm-hand on the farm of the father of defendant, and he moved with his family the next night to Tennessee. The physician who treated the deceased testified that the deceased lived two days after being struck, that meningitis was the immediate cause of his death, and that the
A witness for the State testified that he was driving to Borne on the night of July 4, and saw the defendant and Crumpleton standing on the bridge on the road near the scene of the crime, and that an automobile was on the opposite side of the bridge. The sheriff testified that the defendant made several statements to him with reference to the crime and told-conflicting stories; one, that he got lost from Crumpleton and drove toward home and picked up Crumpleton a short distance from town, and they drove on home, and that he knew nothing of the crime. Another story he told was that Crumpleton picked up Green, and they drove out from Borne; that Crumpleton and Green got to quarreling, and Crumple-ton hit him on the head with the crank-handle and dragged him off up the hollow. The later statements implicated Crumpleton as the perpetrator of the crime. A sister of the defendant and another witness, a man working for the father of the defendant, testified that the morning after the crime Crumpleton came to the house and told the defendant not to tell of the occurrence the night before; if he did, that he would get him, like he did the other man. A physician testified that the defendant was not morally responsible for his conduct, that a spell pf fever a few years previous had ah
The evidence was sufficient to authorize the jury to find the defendant guilty.
There is only one special ground in the motion for new trial, which assigns error on the following charge of the court: “Dying declarations, when the jury is satisfied they are such, are founded on the necessity of the case, and the reason that being made in view of impending death and judgment, when the hope of life is extinct, and when the retributions of eternity are at hand, stand on the same plane of solemnity as statements under oath.” The assignment of error is that the charge “is and was erroneous because it gave undue emphasis to the evidence, the weight of which should have been left entirely and exclusively to the jury.” As early as the case of Camphell v. State, 11 Ga. 353, in deciding upon the admissibility of dying declarations in evidence, this court held they were admissible, and used similar language to that quoted above. This language was quoted in Roberts v. State, 138 Ga. 815, 816 (76 S. E. 361); and also in Mitchell v. State, 71 Ga. 128 (2). In addition to the excerpt quoted, the judge instructed the jury, in immediate connection with the above: “I charge you that the court has permitted to go to you certain alleged statements of the deceased, explaining to you at the time the terms and conditions on which the same were permitted to so go to you. I charge you, in the first instance, that it is for the court to determine whether the preliminary proof is sufficient to admit dying declarations; but this ruling is not bind
It was not error to overrule the motion for new trial. McArthur v. State, 120 Ga. 195 (47 S. E. 553); Strickland v. State, 167 Ga. 452 (145 S. E. 879).
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- KEITH v. State
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- Published