Hancock v. State, 48007

• Decision Date: 19 August 1974
• Docket Number: No. 48007,48007
• Citation: 299 So.2d 188
• Parties: Wallace HANCOCK v. STATE of Mississippi.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 188

299 So.2d 188

Wallace HANCOCK v. STATE of Mississippi.

No. 48007.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

Aug. 19, 1974.

Howie, Montgomery & Montjoy, Overstreet & Kuykendall, Minor C. Sumners, Jr., Jackson, for appellant.

A. F. Summer, Atty. Gen., by Billy L. Gore, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.

SMITH, Justice:

Wallace Hancock was convicted in the Circuit Court of Hinds County of the murder of one Joseph Marks, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. He appeals.

Several questions are raised by appellant.

It is first argued that a statement given by him to an officer following his arrest was improperly admitted into evidence. At a preliminary hearing to determine its admissibility, the officer to whom it was given, testified that he had informed Hancock of his Miranda rights and that Hancock had stated that he understood them. Hancock then voluntarily undertook to tell the officer about how the homicide had occurred. It is objected that it was shown that Hancock had only an 87 intelligence quotient, that he was what is called 'dull normal,' had completed only about 8 or 10 grades of school, and that these circumstances rendered him incompetent to give the statement. It was established by appellant's own testimony as a witness in his own behalf that he could (and did) easily and understandingly read from the signed typewritten statement while testifying on the stand. He admitted that he had signed it, and that it contained what he had told the officer. There was no suggestion of coercion or mistreatment nor was there any evidence that the giving of the statement had been induced by promises. A reading of appellant's testimony, as it appears in the record, does not suggest any such lack of intelligence or understanding as would render the statement given by him to the officer inadmissible. The court correctly admitted the statement.

It is next argued that Hancock is entitled to a reversal and discharge under the rule laid down in Weathersby v. State, 165 Miss. 207, 147 So. 481 (1933). In Weathersby this Court said:

The only eyewitnesses to this homicide were the appellant and his wife. According to their testimony a case of self-defense was sufficiently made out, as against which the state argues that there are physical facts which contradict them. It has been for some time the established rule in this state that where the defendant or the defendant's witnesses are the only eyewitnesses to the homicide, their version, if reasonable, must be accepted as true, unless substantially contradicted in material particulars by a credible witness or witnesses for the state, or by the physical facts or by the facts of common knowledge. Houston v. State, 117 Miss. 311, 78 So. 182; Patty v. State, 126 Miss. 94, 88 So. 498; Wesley v. State, 153 Miss. 357, 120 So. 918; Walters v. State, 153 Miss. 709, 122 So. 189; Gray v. State, 158 Miss. 266, 130 So. 150.

(165...