Harris v. Commonwealth
Harris v. Commonwealth
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
Upon an indictment for robbery Harris was tried, convicted and sentenced to the penitentiary for the term of eight years.
The cases of Langhorne v. Commonwealth, 76 Va. 1012; Uhl v. Commonwealth, 6 Gratt. (47 Va. ) 706; Cutchin v. Roanoke, 113 Va. 453, 74 S. E. 403, and Allen v. Commonwealth, 122 Va. 834, 94 S. E. 783, relied upon by counsel for the prisoner, do not support his contention, and are not in conflict with the action of the trial court. The distinguishing and controlling feature in the instant case is . found in the fact that the prisoner voluntarily put his residence and occupation in issue, and thereby opened the way to. the cross-examination.
.
Affirmed.
Reference
- Cited By
- 18 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Criminal Law. &emdash; Witnesses &emdash; Cross-Examination of Accused■&emdash;■ Residence and Occupation.&emdash;Where the accused voluntarily and with the manifest purpose of improving his standing with the jury, put in issue his residence and occupation during certain years, he cannot object to a full cross-examination upon those facts. 2. Criminal Law. &emdash; Witnesses &emdash; Cross-Examination of Accused&emdash; Residence and Occupation&emdash;Confinement in Penitentiary&emdash;Case at Bar.&emdash;Upon a prosecution for robbery, accused, as a witness in his own behalf, undertook to give an account of his whereabouts and occupation from 1908 to 1920. On cross-examination he admitted that he was in Atlanta in 1910, and was then • askéd what he was doing there. His counsel objected to this question, but was overruled and he answered that he was in prison. Held: There was no error in the action of the trial court in permitting the question and refusing to exclude the answer. 3. Criminal Law. &emdash; Witnesses &emdash; Cross-Examination of Accused&emdash; Residence and Occupation&emdash;Confinement in Penitentia/ry&emdash;Case at Bar.&emdash;In the instant case the cause and nature of the imprisonment of accused in Atlanta did not appear, and it was urged on behalf of accused that leaving the matter thus to conjecture might have seriously and unjustly injured him in the estimation of the jury. Held: That there was no merit in this contention, as accused had the right to tell the jury, on a re-direct examination, all about his imprisonment, and did not see .fit to do so. 4. Criminal Law.&emdash;Instructions&emdash;Questions not Affecting the Guilt or Innocence of Accused.&emdash;Upon a trial for robbery, where the offcer who arrested accused took certain money from his person, which was held and used as evidence against him, it was not error for the trial court to refuse to instruct the jury that the taking and withholding of the money was contrary to law, regardless of whether the instruction in the abstract was true, as the instruction related to a question not affecting the guilt or innocence of the accused. 5. Criminal Law. — Instructions—Questions not Affecting the Guilt or Innocence of Accused. — The refusal of the court on a trial for robbery to instruct the jury that the officer who arrested the accused had no right to confine the prisoner in jail without a warrant, and no- right to take from the home of his parents a certain hat used in evidence against him, .was not error. 6. Robbery. — Evidence—Possession of Stolen Property — Instructions. —Upon a prosecution for robbery, a witness testified that the accused took from him at the point of a pistol a ten dollar bill with “a binder and four horses on it.” A bill similarly marked was found on the person of the accused when arrested, but was not further identified as the money taken. Held: That the possession of the note was a circumstance proper for the consideration of the jury, and it would have been an invasion of their province for the court to have instructed them that the fact of accused’s possession of the bill was not to be construed against him. 7. Robbery.- — Evidence—Conviction of Another, Who Resembled Accused, of Felony. — On a trial for robbery it appeared in evidence that a negro about the same size as the accused, who was also a negro, was in town about the time of the robbery, and that he left under suspicious circumstances. Accused then offered to prove that this negro had been convicted of a felony, and the court refused to admit the evidence. Held: No error. 8. New Trials. — Questions of Law and Fact — Credibility of Witnesses and Weight of Testimony. — Where although the testimony in a prosecution for robbery was involved in conflict, and not altogether satisfying, yet the evidence tending to support the theory of the Commonwealth was sufficient, if believed by the jury, to warrant the verdict, the refusal of the trial court to set aside the verdict as contrary to the law and the evidence is not error. 9. Questions of Law and Fact. — Weight and Credibility of Witnesses. — The question of the credibility of witnesses and the weight of the testimony is peculiarly for the jury.