Allen v. State
| Decision Date | 10 October 1946 |
| Docket Number | 15606. |
| Parties | ALLEN v. STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court.
1. There being evidence to show that the accused committed the crime of rape as charged in the indictment by using a knife to intimidate and force his victim to submit, proof that the defendant, within a period of one month and in the same general section of the City of Atlanta, attacked two other women, employing a knife as a means to intimidate and frighten into submission, was admissible for the purpose of identification and showing plan, motive, and scheme.
2. Though the victim testified that she had never before seen her assailant, and that it was dark when he assaulted her her positive testimony upon the trial identified him as her assailant, and her testimony that she had previously identified him at the jail was not incredible as a matter of law, but her credibility was a question exclusively for determination by the jury. There was other evidence identifying the defendant as her assailant. The evidence as a whole being sufficient to prove the crime as alleged in the indictment, the general grounds of the motion for new trial are without merit.
Lee James Allen was convicted, without recommendation of mercy in Fulton Superior Court on March 6, 1946, of the offense of rape. The alleged female victim testified that she was a white woman 41 years of age, had married at the age of 14 and has two children, ages 14 and 27. She separated from her husband, who was married again. On October 17, 1945, she lived at 980 Pulliam Street, and between 8:30 and 9 o'clock p. m. she was on her way home, walking on Memorial Drive between Pulliam and Washington Streets. Before she saw or heard the defendant he took hold of her and dragged her in the weeds, which were as high as her head. He dragged her about 50 feet onto a vacant lot, and there threw her to the ground, jerked her step-ins off, and told her that she need not holler, that negroes lived along there. When he first put his hands on her she felt some substance on her neck that felt like a pocket knife closed. She said, 'Oh, My God, a negro!' and then was when he said she need not holler because negroes lived along there. He pushed her to the ground and had sexual intercourse with her. She tried to prevent it. She tried to close her legs tried to cross her legs, tried to put her hands between her legs, and put her hands over her female organ, but he forced his way, removed her hands, and forcibly had sexual intercourse with her. He was engaged in the sexual act two or three minutes. This was in Fulton County, Georgia. As soon as he released her she went straight to Produce Row, about a half a block away, and told the first man she saw what had happened. He telephoned the policeman. The first policeman came in about twenty minutes, and she reported to the officer what had happened. She gave him a description of the person who had raped her, and he took her to the hospital where her female organ was examined by a doctor. The sexual intercourse was without her consent, and she resisted to the limit of her ability. In February, 1946, she went to the jail and identified the defendant, who was lined up with five or six other colored men and was about the third from the end, as being the person who raped her. She went with an officer inside the cell and told the defendant that he knew her and knew the coat she had on, whereupon he replied that he did not recognize the coat. She testified that it was the same coat that she had on the night he raped her. The police officer testified that, when he reached her, her coat was covered with grass and dirt and indicated that she had been dragged. The doctor who examined her testified that a man had had intercourse with her at some time within 6 or 8 hours prior to his examination. The State introduced a writing in which the crime as described by the female victim was admitted by the defendant. This confession was signed by the defendant, and the officers who witnessed it testified that it was made freely and voluntarily and without fear or favor, and that the defendant had voluntarily gone with the officers to the scene of the crime, showing them where it was committed.
The State introduced a white female witness who testified that on September 9, 1945, she was living at 505 Kelley Street, and that about 2:15 a. m. she heard the shades of her window flapping and looked and saw the defendant coming through the window in her bedroom with a knife in his hand. He grabbed her and told her that he would kill her if she hollered, made her lie down on the bed, ripped and tore her gown off, and had sexual intercourse with her against her will and without her consent. She had had an operation a few months previously, and the intercourse was hurting her so badly she told him she would give him $20 if he would quit, and he said, 'Make it $25,' and she made no reply, he having his hand over her mouth. She also went to the jail in February and identified the defendant as her attacker. A writing signed by the defendant, admitting the attack upon this lady exactly as described by her, was admitted in evidence.
The State introduced as a witness another white lady who testified that she was living in a house with her father at 352 Kelley Street in Atlanta on October 7, 1945. Between 2 and 2:30 at night she was awakened by someone striking a match and lighting a candle. She saw the defendant standing near her bed with a lighted candle in one hand and a knife in the other. He told her to 'say nothing.' She jumped and grabbed the knife and held on to it, out of her bedroom into the kitchen, screaming for her father. Her father came to her, and the defendant went out at the kitchen window. The defendant snatched the knife out of her hand, which was cut to the bone. She got a good look at the man with the candle lighted. She subsequently identified the defendant as the man. She made this identification at the police station in February. There were seven in the line and she identified the defendant. The State introduced a written statement signed by the defendant, admitting his conduct as testified by this witness.
Officers testified to the defendant's voluntary verbal admissions and confession as shown by the written documents introduced, and that the accused voluntarily accompanied them to the three places where he had committed the crimes, and pointed out their location.
The defendant made a statement to the jury in which he denied his guilt, and stated that he was forced by officers Moss and Cox to make the confession. He stated that he did not know...
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Tarkington v. State, 5494
...to the general rule of exclusion to the method or means of approach taken by an assailant are numerous. See e.g., Allen v. State, 201 Ga. 391, 40 S.E.2d 144 (1946), where the common elements were that all the rapes and attempts to rape were committed by a negro upon white women in the same ......
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Edwards v. State, s. 19845
...was clearly admissible to prove the state of mind of the accused. Wheeler v. State, 179 Ga. 287, 288(1), 175 S.E. 540; Allen v. State, 201 Ga. 391(1), 40 S.E.2d 144; Biegun v. State, 206 Ga. 618(1), 58 S.E.2d 149; Dorsey v. State, 204 Ga. 345(1), 49 S.E.2d 886. Therefore, the mere fact that......
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Biegun v. State
...crimes of similar nature were the same, this aids in identification, and proof of other such crimes is admissible.' Allen v. State, 201 Ga. 391, 395, 40 S.E.2d 144, 147. In Dorsey v. State, 204 Ga. 345, 49 S.E.2d 886, where the defendant was on trial for rape, evidence of assault with inten......
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Hicks v. State
...... We agree and hold this evidence was admissible to identify the accused and to illustrate a common motive and plan. Allen v. State, 201 Ga. 391(1), 40 S.E.2d 144 (1946); Gunter v. State, 223 Ga. 290, 154 S.E.2d 608 (1967); Anderson v. State, 222 Ga. 561, 150 S.E.2d 638 (1966). There was sufficient similarity in each of these instances to make the evidence admissible for the purpose of identifying the ......