State v. Griffin

• Decision Date: 28 May 1914
• Docket Number: 8860.
• Parties: STATE v. GRIFFIN ET AL.
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court

82 S.E. 254

98 S.C. 105

STATE v. GRIFFIN ET AL.

No. 8860.

Supreme Court of South Carolina

May 28, 1914

Appeal from General Sessions Circuit Court of Chester County; C.J Ramage, Special Judge.

"To be officially reported."

Meeks Griffin and others were convicted of murder, and they appeal. Affirmed.

Hydrick J., dissenting.

W. H Newbold, of Chester, for appellants.

J. K Henry, of Chester, for the State.

GARY C.J.

The following statement of facts appears in the record:

"On April the 24th, 1913, Mr. John Q. Lewis, an elderly Confederate soldier, was shot and killed in his home in the nighttime, about ten miles in the country from Chester, S.C. There was no eyewitness to the tragedy, so far as known; great indignation was manifested by the citizens of the county; detectives were put to work on the case; and the officers did all in their power to bring the assassin or assassins to justice. Shortly after the homicide, a man and his wife, other than these appellants, were arrested, charged with the crime; the sheriff took them to the State Penitentiary for safe-keeping because of threats of lynching; the coroner immediately impaneled a jury; and after a brief session they adjourned, and never met any more until 26th June ult., when they met and found the following verdict, after a secret session, to which appellants' attorney was denied admission. 'That the said John Q. Lewis, deceased, came to his death from gunshot wounds in the hands of Meeks Griffin, Thos. Griffin, John Crosby, and Nelson Brice, and John Stevenson, accessory before the fact.' That those defendants appellants had been arrested and confined in the Chester county jail since June 13th ult., on a warrant issued by the coroner, alleging that each of them were material and important witnesses, concerning the death of John Q. Lewis, deceased.

"On the 7th day of July, thereafter, a true bill was returned by the grand jury of Chester county, charging the said Meeks Griffin, Thomas Griffin, John Crosby, Nelson Brice, and John Stevenson, alias Monk Stevenson, jointly with the murder of the said John Q. Lewis, deceased, as per certified copy of the indictment filed with the case, and on that same day all five of the said defendants were duly arraigned on said indictment, each of said defendants entered their plea thereon of not guilty, and not ready for trial (John Stevenson, alias Monk Stevenson, was not put on trial). The court, however, set Wednesday, the 9th day of July, as the day for trial. The evidence and inquisition as taken by the coroner was not filed, but on Tuesday, July the 8th ult., was handed to defendants' attorney in court, by the solicitor, and on that day defendants' attorney made a motion for continuance of the case for these four defendants appellants, on the following affidavit: [Then follows affidavit of appellants' attorney.] Same was refused by the court on the following order:

" 'In the above matter I refuse a continuance. It does not occur to me that a continuance ought to be granted in the within case. The matter has been presented very ably and earnestly by Mr. Newbold.

"C. J. Ramage, Special Judge, Presiding.

"July 8, 1913.'

On Wednesday, July 9th, case was called, and the four defendants appellants herein were placed on trial before a jury. The case of the other defendant, Stevenson, was held up for the present by the solicitor. No other disposition being made of his case, Monk Stevenson was sworn by the state as a witness, and testified against these defendants appellants, over objection, that he was an incompetent witness because he was a codefendant with them.

The Court amended defendants' second request to charge by adding the words, to the end thereof, 'and the force of all circumstances are with the jury.'

The jury returned the following verdict: 'Guilty as to Meeks Griffin, Thomas Griffin, John Crosby, and Nelson Brice.'

A motion for a new trial was duly made by defendants, on the grounds 'that an incompetent witness, to wit, John Stevenson, alias Monk Stevenson, a codefendant, had been permitted to testify against them, over objection, and that there was no evidence to sustain the verdict.' Motion overruled.

"The court then sentenced these defendants appellants to death by electrocution on September the 26, 1913."

The following are the exceptions of the appellants:

(1) That the court erred, it is respectfully submitted, in overruling defendants' motion for a continuance of the case. (a) Because the coroner had not filed the evidence taken at a secret session of his jury, to which appellants' attorney had been denied admission, before the true bill was found by the grand jury, and the defendants had no time to prepare their defense, after being apprised of the nature of the crime of which they were charged, and were thus denied a fair and impartial

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