Brandon v. State

• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: WHITFIELD, C.
• Citation: Brandon v. State, 99 Miss. 784, 56 So. 165 (Miss. 1911)
• Decision Date: 05 June 1911
• Parties: JAMES BRANDON v. STATE

56 So. 165

99 Miss. 784

JAMES BRANDON v. STATE

Supreme Court of Mississippi

June 5, 1911

March 1911

APPEAL from the circuit court of Chickasaw county, HON.W. A. ROANE Judge.

James Brandon was convicted of manslaughter and appeals.

The facts are as follows:

On the trial what purported to be the dying declaration of the deceased was admitted as evidence over the objection of the defendant. The deceased was shot on Saturday night. Two days later he made a statement to the sheriff about the killing. He died on the eighth or ninth day after the shootings, of pneumonia, which was contracted about the sixth or seventh day after he was shot. At the time he was shot he was very drunk. The doctor called upon him constantly during his sickness, and the first few days he stated to the doctor "that he was afraid of death," and that "he believed he was going to die," and according to the doctor's testimony he was excited about his condition and said "he didn't believe he would get well," or words to that effect. About this time he made the statement to the deputy sheriff, which was admitted as his dying declaration. The defendant objected, on the ground that this declaration does not come within the rule as it does not show that he was "in extremis," or in fear of impending dissolution.

Reversed and remanded.

A. T Stovall, for appellant.

I understand the rule to be that the court must know beyond every reasonable doubt that the declarant recognized that he was "in extremis;" in other words, made the statement under a sense of impending dissolution; conscious of the approach of death at the time of making the statement and of its certainty. In other words, there must be no hope of recovery, and no longer any temporal, self serving purpose to be furthered, as evidently there was in this case. The declarant was justifying himself to the officers. He never said that he realized that he was going to die; but on the contrary the officers testified that he didn't even express any anxiety while they were there. The only time he ever said anything about dying was to the Doctor, the first few days of his sickness, when he was not over the effects of his drunk, and was feeling bad, and then he only said he was afraid he was going to die. After that he began to improve, and never to his wife or any member of his family did he express a belief that he was going to die; or tell them anything about how he was shot. Don't you know that, if he had realized that he was going to die, and that death was certain, he would have said something to his family on the subject? Yet, he never said anything ot his family about dying; and he never said anything about how he was shot to anyone except the officers, and that was with a self-serving purpose; when he was making his statement to them in order that he might not be arrested and taken to jail. The officers never told him they were not going to do this; but simply demanded that he tell them how it happened. It wasn't a voluntary statement on his part. There was no one present except the officers, and the statement was made at their solicitation. He was afraid that if he...