Anderson v. State

Mississippi Supreme Court
Anderson v. State, 91 Miss. 407 (Miss. 1907)
45 So. 359
Whiteield

Anderson v. State

Opinion of the Court

Whiteield, C. J.,

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 *410shut it out. We think the case falls on this proposition squarely within the principles announced in the case of Chism v. State, 70 Miss., 742; 12 South., 852. In a case almost wholly circumstantial, the error is all the more marked.

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.