Gray v. State
| Decision Date | 18 April 1911 |
| Citation | 55 So. 124,171 Ala. 37 |
| Parties | GRAY v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Appeal from Criminal Court, Jefferson County; S. L. Weaver, Judge.
Richard Gray was convicted of murder in the second degree, and he appeals. Reversed and remanded.
B. M. Allen and William Conniff, for appellant.
Alexander M. Garber, Atty. Gen., for the State.
Defendant was convicted of murder in the second degree, and sentenced to the penitentiary for a period of 25 years.
The evidence was without dispute that defendant killed deceased by shooting him with a pistol. There was little dispute, if any, that deceased had cut defendant, and was cutting or attempting to cut him, when defendant fired the fatal shot. The evidence was in conflict as to who provoked the difficulty.
The trial court refused to the defendant the following charge: "I charge you, gentlemen of the jury, if the defendant shot under a bona fide belief that his life was in danger, and had under all the circumstances reasonable cause to believe that he was in imminent danger at the moment the shot was fired, it would be immaterial whether there was such actual danger or not." This refusal was reversible error. This identical charge has been several times held to be proper, and its refusal to be error, when the charge was not inappropriate and not abstract. It was a proper charge under the facts of this case, and its refusal error. Kennedy v. State, 140 Ala. 1, 37 So. 90; Fantroy v. State, 166 Ala. 198, 51 So. 931.
The other questions, as to the organization of the special jury, may not arise on another trial.
Reversed and remanded.
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... ... circumstances attending the killing were such as to justify a ... reasonable belief that the defendant was in imminent danger ... of death or serious bodily harm, and he honestly believed ... such to be the case, it was immaterial whether there was such ... danger or not. Gray v. State, 171 Ala. 37, 55 So ... 124; Hubbard v. State, 172 Ala. 374, 55 So. 615; ... Caldwell v. State, 160 Ala. 96, 49 So. 679; ... Twitty v. State, 168 Ala. 59, 53 So. 308; ... Fantroy v. State, 166 Ala. 27, 51 So. 931; ... Kennedy v. State, 140 Ala. 1, 37 So. 90 ... ...
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