Clemmons v. State

Citation52 So. 467,167 Ala. 20
PartiesCLEMMONS v. STATE.
Decision Date05 April 1910
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama

Appeal from Law and Equity Court, Morgan County; Thomas W. Wert Judge.

Bob Clemmons was convicted of murder, and he appeals. Reversed and remanded.

John R Sample and Callahan & Harris, for appellant.

Alexander M. Garber, Atty. Gen., for the State.

MAYFIELD J.

The case made by appellant is as follows: The accused was indicted, tried, and convicted for the murder of Nettie Edmonson. The indictment was found at a regular term of the Morgan county law and equity court by a grand jury organized under an order of the court based on the failure of the jury commissioners to draw a grand jury for that term of court. Said order directed the jury commissioners to draw a sufficient number of qualified citizens to compose a grand jury, and the sheriff was therein commanded to summon the grand jury so drawn. The record shows that one Tom Edmonson and his family, consisting of his mother, 72 years of age his wife, his daughter, Nettie Edmonson, 13 years of age, and an infant son, 2 years of age, resided in Morgan county; that the defendant lived on Edmonson's farm and cultivated his lands on shares, and had done so for several years; that he lived a short distance from Edmonson's house, and the defendant and Edmonson and his family had always been friends.

On the night of November 25, 1908, Tom Edmonson's home was discovered to be on fire, and his neighbors, including the defendant, rushed to the scene. On arriving, the house and barn were discovered to be in flames, and it was impossible for any one to enter or go near to either. Search was immediately made to ascertain the whereabouts of Tom Edmonson and the different members of his family; but none of them could be located. Later in the night, and during the burning of the house, a body was seen lying within one of the rooms on a bed, with face down, and it was taken from the burning building, together with the bedding and bed. The bedding, bedtick, and feathers under the body were saturated with "fresh red blood." This body was identified to be that of Nettie Edmonson. A physician examined the body and found two wounds, one a cut or stab, in the right side of the chest; the other a gash or slight cut on or near the collar bone. The physician testified that these wounds were not fatal. No other bodies were found in the house, but a part of the body of Tom Edmonson's wife or mother, and a foot of his infant son, were found in the barn in the cotton seed room, and also the carcasses of Tom Edmonson's three mules. Near the human bodies found in the seed room was found an open knife, identified as that of Tom Edmonson, the blade of which was corroded and stained. Extensive search failed to discover any trace of Tom Edmonson, his body, or any part thereof. The open knife identified to be that of Tom Edmonson was delivered to the physician, and the blade inserted into the wounds of Nettie Edmonson, and "the wound fit the blade of the knife," and the blade of the knife fitted the hole in the clothing of Nettie Edmonson that correspond to the wound in her chest.

It appears that Tom Edmonson was a simple-minded man and incapable of transacting much business; that during the afternoon preceding the fire he was at his home, and was mad; that, some days or weeks after the fire, blood was found in and about the home of the defendant, and also out near the graveyard, some distance from Tom Edmonson's house and that of defendant. A coroner's jury was held at the home of the defendant the day following the fire, which a great number of people attended. At this investigation no blood was seen, at any of these various places about defendant's, as was found many days or weeks afterwards. The day after the fire, parties were searching in almost every direction from the Edmonson home, and in and around the graveyard. The burial of the remains of Tom Edmonson's family occurred at this graveyard, drawing great crowds of people; but no one discovered the blood in the sedge grass, which was found thereafter, only 10 or 15 feet from the public highway. Numerous witnesses testified that the blood afterwards found was not about the premises the day after the fire. The first coroner's jury returned the verdict that the family of Tom Edmonson had been killed by Tom Edmonson, and that he was at large, and the second coroner's jury found that the family came to their deaths at the hands of unknown parties.

The record discloses that defendant was alleged to have made a statement to one Gib Luker, his 13 year old nephew, on the morning before the night of the fire, and broached the conversation in this manner: "I will tell you something, if you will promise not to tell it, and I said I would not tell. He made me take 20 cents not to tell it. He then said he had killed Edmonson and his family, and for me to go to school and not tell anybody, and when he handed me the money he said not to look sad that day. I went on to school and stayed at school all day long and did not tell any one. When I left school, I came back to defendant's house the same way I had gone that morning, and when I was passing his house he came out and walked with me down the path a little piece and asked me if I had told any one, and I told him that I had not. He then said that he was going to put them all in the house and burn them up that night. That that morning, when he went up there to feed, the whole family got after him, some with sticks, some with rocks, some with knives, and he had to kill them. He said that Nettie was pretty high strung and like to have gotten away from him; that he ran her up the road to the graveyard and caught her and had a struggle with her, and she like to have gotten away. He said she was lying out in the old field up there, and that he was going to put them all in the house and set it afire and then hallow and then ring the bell. He told me to tell my father and mother when they saw the fire down there that night that they had better not come down there."

It further appears that one Harry Culbreath was at the home of Tom Edmonson at about 10 o'clock in the morning of the day just preceding the fire, and saw Tom Edmonson, his wife, and some of the other members of his family, and talked with them. Other testimony showed that the family was at home late in the afternoon, and a few hours prior to the fire.

The testimony of expert witnesses showed that the blood in the human body would coagulate in 30 minutes after death.

It appears that the defendant was, before the tragedy, a man of good

character.

The defendant made motion to quash the indictment. The five grounds of the motion presented, in varying form, but two legal propositions: (1) That the indictment was not found by a grand jury drawn in the presence of the officers designated by law; (2) that the indictment was grounded upon an order of the court for the organization of the grand jury, which order was without any warrant in the statute or was contrary to its provisions.

After the introduction of the evidence addressed to the various grounds of the motion, the court overruled the same, and the defendant excepted. The defendant also raised the same questions in the form of six pleas in abatement. Pleas 4, 5, and 6 were demurred out, and issue joined on pleas 1, 2, and 3, and the same evidence was introduced in support of the pleas as was introduced to the motion, whereupon the court gave to the jury the general affirmative charge at the request of the state, and the defendant excepted.

The objections to the indictment were grounded upon the following order of the court, made at a regular term thereof, for a grand jury for said term: "Monday morning, February 1, 1909. State of Alabama, Morgan County. Morgan County Law and Equity Court. Be it remembered that at a regular term of the Morgan county law and equity court, begun and held for the county of Morgan, at the courthouse of said county in the city of Decatur, Ala., commencing on Monday, February 1, 1909, present and presiding the Honorable Thos. W. Wert, judge; D. F. Greene, solicitor; J. S. Fowler, clerk; and Thos. R. Shipp, sheriff of said county. The court being duly opened according to law, and the commissioners having failed to draw a grand jury for this term of the court, and the court being of the opinion that a special grand jury should convene to consider any violations of the law and to perform other duties, and the court being of the opinion that the jury commission should draw said special grand jury: It is ordered that said commission draw immediately, as is required by law, a sufficient number of qualified citizens to compose said special grand jury, and the sheriff is hereby ordered to summon same, to be and appear at the courthouse, Morgan county, Ala., at 10 o'clock a. m. February 8, 1909. Dated Feb. 1, 1909."

Sections 6 and 7 of the act creating the Morgan county law and equity court provide that the court shall have two regular terms each year, known as the spring and fall terms of court; the spring term to begin on the first Monday in February and end June 30th, and the fall term to begin the first Monday in September and end December 31st. The sessions of the court to be held during these terms are left to the discretion of the presiding judge, fixed by an order entered of record. Local Acts 1907, p. 193. Section 29 of this act undertakes to provide against any failure of the jury commissioners to perform their duty in this instance, as well as to provide against other contingencies that might arise from other causes. It provides: "That whenever for any cause a jury, grand or petit, shall be quashed by the court or shall fail to have been drawn or summoned, or if drawn and...

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  • Williams v. State
    • United States
    • Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals
    • May 31, 1983
    ...of credibility which it will give the confession." Wallace v. State, 290 Ala. 201, 204, 275 So.2d 634 (1973). In Clemmons v. State, 167 Ala. 20, 52 So. 467, 472 (1910), it was "The court, also as part of its oral charge, instructed the jury that the alleged confession of the accused was vol......
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    ...or innocence in equipoise, they could not, on that account alone, acquit. Winter & Scisson v. State, 20 Ala. 39.' Clemons v. State, 167 Ala. 20, 33, 34, 52 So. 467, 472. 'Chief Justice Cooley, in Garbutt's Case, 17 Mich. 9-28, 97 Am.Dec. 162, after reviewing the conflicting cases on the sub......
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    ...v. State, 412 So.2d 1278 (Ala.Crim.App.1982), where the court found as follows: "The charge should not have been given. Clemmons v. State, 167 Ala. 20, 52 So. 467 (1910); Amos v. State, 73 Ala. 498 (1883). However, the fact that isolated instructions are erroneous or misleading is no ground......
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