Maynor v. State, 33419
| Decision Date | 18 April 1978 |
| Docket Number | No. 33419,33419 |
| Parties | MAYNOR v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Ashman & Zipperer, Charles R. Ashman, Savannah, for appellant.
Andrew J. Ryan, III, Dist. Atty., Joseph D. Newman, Asst. Dist. Atty., Arthur K. Bolton, Atty. Gen., for appellee.
The jury found the defendant guilty of murder and he was sentenced to life in prison. On appeal he urges that the trial court erred in sustaining the prosecutor's objection to defense counsel's question to the defendant concerning whether the victim previously had tried to pick fights with the defendant.
The jury was authorized from the evidence to find that the victim was the defendant's uncle, that on the night in question the defendant came to his grandmother's house where the victim lived, that the defendant and the victim had a fight which started in the house as a fistfight and shoving contest and ended outside with the defendant using a pool cue or pipe and the victim using a porch chair to defend himself, that the defendant went to a house across the street where he obtained a butcher knife, and that about 20 minutes later he entered the victim's house by the back door and stabbed the victim three times. An eyewitness to the stabbing testified that the victim was unarmed and although the victim had been drinking he did not threaten the defendant at the time of the stabbing.
The defendant testified that the victim had a reputation in the community for being a heavy drinker and for being violent when he was drinking. Defense counsel then asked if the victim previously had tried to pick fights with the defendant, the prosecution objected, and the court sustained the objection. The defendant testified that he stabbed the victim to protect himself and in self-defense.
The defendant acknowledges the rule that where the deceased's general character is admissible, his character for violence cannot be established by specific acts. Black v. State, 230 Ga. 614(3), 198 S.E.2d 314 (1973); Jordan v. State, 232 Ga. 749(1), 208 S.E.2d 840 (1974); Henderson v. State, 234 Ga. 827, 828-829, 218 S.E.2d 612 (1975). He urges, however, that proof of separate and distinct similar offenses by the defendant is admissible to show the intent, malice, motive, plan, scheme or bent of mind of the defendant. Hunt v. State, 233 Ga. 329, 211 S.E.2d 288 (1974); Campbell v. State, 234 Ga. 130, 131, 214 S.E.2d 656 (1975). He argues that since proof of prior specific acts of the defendant is admissible to prove plan, malice and intent, proof of prior specific acts of the victim should be admissible to prove plan, malice and intent where the defendant claims self-defense and the defendant's evidence shows that it was the victim who was the aggressor.
We do not reach the merits of this argument here because the defendant has not produced evidence on which his argument is founded, namely that the victim was the aggressor at the time of the stabbing....
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