Davis v. State

• Decision Date: 07 June 1900
• Citation: 28 So. 617,126 Ala. 44
• Parties: DAVIS v. STATE
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

28 So. 617

126 Ala. 44

DAVIS v. STATE

Supreme Court of Alabama

June 7, 1900

Appeal from city court of Montgomery; A. D. Sayre, Judge.

David Davis was convicted of murder in the first degree, and he appeals. Affirmed.

The appellant, David Davis, was indicted and tried for the murder of Bama Williams, was convicted of murder in the first degree, and sentenced to be hung. When the case was called for trial, the defendant made a motion to quash the venire upon the ground that 21 of the jurors specially drawn for the case had not been summoned. It was shown that these jurors were not found by the sheriff. This motion was overruled, and the defendant duly excepted. The defendant moved the court to supply in manner and form prescribed by the law jurors in place of those who were drawn as special jurors in the case and not summoned. The court overruled this motion, and the defendant duly excepted. Upon the trial of the case one Jim Nash, a witness for the state, testified that he knew David Davis and Bama Williams; that Bama Williams had been killed by having her throat cut; that on the day she was killed the defendant came to the house where he was, with one Cambee Reynolds, and called Cambee Reynolds to the door of the house, where she and the defendant had a conversation, which was overheard by him; that in this conversation the defendant told Cambee that Bama Williams and one Gus Lee had an engagement to meet in an old house, and that he was going to kill Bama that day and asked Cambee to get him some shells that, after hunting for the shells in the house, Cambee was unable to find them; and that the defendant then walked away with the statement that "Bama has to die this day." It was shown that the defendant and the deceased, Bama Williams, lived together in the same house, but that they had never been married; that there were no persons occupying the house with them. This witness further testified that about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, after Bama Williams had been killed, he went to the house of the father of the defendant where the defendant was, and, upon his (witness') saying in a loud voice, as he walked up to the house, "Bama has been murdered!" the defendant went out of the house. The solicitor asked the witness if the defendant did not run out of the house when he exclaimed about Bama Williams having been murdered. The defendant objected to this question, and duly excepted to the court's overruling his objection. The witness answered that he did run out of the house, and had never been seen since. The body of Bama Williams was found at the head of a ditch, in a plum thicket, with her throat cut from ear to ear, and her head nearly severed from her body. Jim Nash, as a witness for the state, further testified that he went down to the ditch where Bama Williams' body was, and that in going there he came upon the tracks of two people, which tracks led up to the dead body; that the tracks made by one of the persons were made by shoes that were without heels or soles; that these tracks left the body, and went down the ditch again. This witness further testified that he noticed the shoes worn by David Davis, the defendant, that day, and noticed that they were without heels or soles, and that the tracks he saw near the body of the deceased were made by shoes about the same size as David Davis'. After this witness had testified about David Davis and Bama Williams having lived together for more than a year, the solicitor asked him whether the defendant and Bama Williams were married. The witness answered "No they were not married;" and thereupon the defendant moved to exclude this testimony upon the ground that it was a conclusion of the witness. The court overruled the objection, and the defendant excepted. Andrew Lewis, a witness for the state, testified, against the objection and exception of the defendant, that the defendant told him before the homicide that he was going to kill Bama Williams. It was further shown by the evidence for the state that, two nights before the killing of Bama Williams, the defendant upon finding Bama Williams and Gus Lee in a criminally intimate relation, shot Gus Less in the shoulder. Dick Stephens, a witness on the trial, testified that on the day Bama Williams' body was found he was working in his field; that the ditch in which the body was found was not far from where he was working; that the knew the defendant, and about half pass 1 o'clock that day he saw the defendant coming out of the mouth of the ditch in which the body was found; that he went in the direction of his father's house; that the defendant...