Floyd v. State
| Decision Date | 09 March 1915 |
| Docket Number | 239. |
| Citation | 84 S.E. 971,143 Ga. 286 |
| Parties | FLOYD v. STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court.
The assignments of error, based on objections to the solicitor general of the Middle circuit acting in his official capacity, after the transfer to the Augusta circuit of the county where the trial occurred, are concluded by the rulings in Godbee v. State, 141 Ga. 515, 81 S.E. 876.
Acts and circumstances forming a part or continuation of the main transaction are admissible as res gestæ.
The reading in its entirety of Pen. Code 1910, § 70, defining justifiable homicide, under the circumstances of the case will not require a new trial.
By way of preface to his instruction on the law of the prisoner's statement, the court remarked that the defendant had made a statement in "explanation" of the crime alleged against him in the indictment. Such prefatory remark is no sufficient ground for a new trial.
There was no error in refusing to grant a mistrial because of alleged improper remarks of the solicitor general.
Neither the evidence nor the prisoner's statement authorized a charge on either total or delusional insanity.
In so far as the requests to charge were legal and pertinent, they are covered by the general charge. Assignments of error on the charge are not of a character to require a new trial. The evidence warranted the verdict.
Error from Superior Court, Jenkins County; B. F. Walker, Judge.
Henry Floyd was convicted of murder, and brings error. Affirmed.
Chas G. Reynolds and Leroy Cowart, both of Millen, and J. McSwain Woods, of Atlanta, for plaintiff in error.
R. Lee Moore, Sol. Gen., of Statesboro, Warren Grice, Atty. Gen and A. L. Henson, of Atlanta, for the State.
1. The plaintiff in error was convicted of the murder of Berta Perdue, in the superior court of Jenkins county. In his writ of error complaint is made that various steps in the trial were illegal, because it was conducted by the solicitor general of the Middle circuit, after the passage of the act transferring Jenkins county from the Middle to the Augusta circuit. The various demurrers, motions, and pleas of the plaintiff in error on this subject are substantially the same as were made in the case of Godbee v. State, 141 Ga 515, 81 S.E. 876, and are controlled by the rulings made in that case.
2. The testimony introduced by the prosecution tended to show that the defendant went to the house of a friend of the deceased, where the deceased was on the porch engaged in combing the hair of a child of her host. When he reached the gate of the yard he called to the deceased to come to him, and said he wished to tell her something. The deceased replied that she would come when she had finished combing the child's hair. The defendant repeated his demand, and the deceased made the same reply. The defendant then said, "I have got to go off," and the deceased said, "I will hear it when you come back." The defendant said, "I ain't going off," jumped upon the porch, threw the deceased down, and beat her with his fists. He jerked her down the steps and siezed a long-tooth iron rake and struck her over the head several times with it. In striking her with the rake he broke the handle, threw down the broken piece, and walked through the gate; then immediately turned round, came into the yard, and discharged his pistol three times into her prostrate body. The eyewitnesses testified that the tines of the rake penetrated the skull, and that the woman was dead when he fired his pistol at her body. The defendant moved to reject the testimony relating to the shooting, on the ground that the woman was dead when he shot her body. The court refused the motion. There was no error in so doing. The indictment charged the murder as having been caused "by beating the said Berta Perdue with a certain farming tool commonly called a rake, and by shooting said Berta Perdue with a pistol." The beating of the victim with a rake and discharging his pistol into her prostrate body were the defendant's continuous acts, and everything that was done at the time of the homicide entered into the res gestæ of the transaction. Moreover, the firing of the pistol into her lifeless body tended to illustrate his state of mind, and that his whole conduct was inspired by an abandoned and malignant heart.
3. Preliminary to his instruction on the law of justifiable homicide, the court read to the jury in its entirety section 70 of the Penal Code. Exception is taken to the reading of so much of that section as relates to justifiable homicide to prevent a forcible invasion of habitation, as being inapplicable to the facts. The criticism is well taken, but the error is harmless. The court should have read only so much of the section as related to homicide in self-defense, or in defense of person against an impending felony. But the defendant could not possibly have been harmed by reading the whole section. At most, he was given the benefit of an instruction upon a phase of justifiable homicide to which he was not entitled, and which in no wise prejudiced his case. See Brown v. State, 125 Ga. 281, 54 S.E. 162.
4. The court prefaced his instruction relative to the prisoner's statement as follows:
"Now the defendant in this...
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Townsend v. State, 47424
...mental and physical condition at the time of the collision and in addition, the probable causes of the collision. See Floyd v. State, 143 Ga. 286, 287, 84 S.E. 971; Simmons v. State, 79 Ga. 696(1), 4 S.E. 894; Gates v. State, 120 Ga.App. 518(2), 171 S.E.2d 375; Weldon v. State, 84 Ga.App. 6......
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State v. Davis
... ... or any of its members, was competent to show its unlawful ... character and motives. It was held, in a case resembling this ... one in its principal features, that acts and circumstances ... forming a continuation of the main transaction are admissible ... as pars rei gestæ. Floyd v. State, 143 Ga. 286, 84 ... S.E. 971. The several events occurring, one after the other, ... in close and connected succession, must be viewed as linked ... together for one purpose, which was a bad one as tending to a ... breach of the public peace and to strike terror into the ... ...
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State v. Davis
...features, that acts and circumstances forming a continuation of the main transaction are admissible as pars rei gestæ Floyd v. State, 143 Ga. 286, 84 S. E. 971. The several events occurring, one after the other, in close and connected succession, must be viewed as linked together for one pu......
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Weldon v. State
...charged. See Fowler v. State, 189 Ga. 733, 8 S.E.2d 77; Robinson v. State, 62 Ga.App. 355, 7 S.E.2d 758. As stated in Floyd v. State, 143 Ga. 286(2), 84 S.E. 971: 'Acts and circumstances forming a part or continuation of the main transaction are admissible as res gestae', and where, as here......