Anderson v. State
Anderson v. State
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
It was fatal error not to have excluded the testimony of Horace Payne and Henry King when the objection was first made. Objection was. duly made, and was overruled, when Horace Payne was under examination. This testimony put the entire details of a previous difficulty between the deceased and the defendant, some two or three months before the killing, before the jury. Without going particularly into these details, it is sufficient to say that they were such as manifestly to prejudice the defendant in the eyes of the jury very seriously — so seriously, indeed, that we cannot say, with any confidence, that the verdict of the jury might not have been different if this testimony had been excluded. It was of the most damaging character, and the error in not excluding it was not cured by subsequently sustaining the motion of the defendant to
Reversed and remanded.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- David Anderson v. State of Mississippi
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Criminal Law and Procedure. Murder. Evidence. Circumstantial Evidence. Previous difficulty. It is reversible error on tbe trial of a murder case, dependent largely on circumstantial evidence, to allow testimony to be offered by tbe state touching tbe details of a previous difficulty between defendant and deceased, occurring two or more months before tbe homicide, in tbe absence of evidence of continued hostility thereafter, and the exclusion thereof by the trial court, after the state had rested its case, will not cure the error.