Holmes v. State
| Decision Date | 10 January 1890 |
| Citation | 88 Ala. 26,7 So. 193 |
| Parties | HOLMES v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Appeal from city court of Montgomery; THOMAS M. ARRINGTON, Judge.
Indictment against George Holmes for the murder of Thomas Robinson. Defendant was convicted, sentenced to the penitentiary for life, and appealed.
W. L Martin, Atty. Gen., for the State.
It was clearly competent to ask the witness Farley, on cross-examination, if he had not heard that the defendant "wore stripes" while working on the streets of Montgomery; the witness having testified on his examination in chief that he had never heard anything against the defendant. To say of one that he wore "stripes," the appellation commonly applied to the grab of a convict necessarily implies a conviction of some infraction of the law, and is therefore derogatory of the person so referred to. In this instance, the testimony tended directly to contradict and weaken the negative evidence of good character given by the witness, and its admission was free from error.
The witness McHugh was incompetent to testify either affirmatively or negatively as to character. He knew nothing of the reputation borne by the prisoner in the neighborhood in which he lived or where he was known; and he failed to show that he was in such a position with reference to the defendant's residence or circle of acquaintances as that the fact of his not hearing anything against him would have any tendency to show that nothing had been said, and that therefore, his character was good. This witness swore that "he thought the character of prisoner for peace and quiet was good," but he further testifies that this was his personal opinion merely, based on what he himself knew from a personal acquaintance which had existed for about two years, during which time he had seen him frequently "but their relations were not intimate, and he did not know where the defendant lived" Very clearly this witness neither knew the reputation of the defendant affirmatively, nor was he in a position to have heard what was said in derogation of good character in such sort that his having heard nothing against the defendant could have shed any light on the inquiry. His evidence was properly excluded. Cheritree v. Roggen, 67 Barb. 124; Dave v. State, 22 Ala. 23; Mose v. State, 36 Ala. 211; Martin v. Martin, 25 Ala. 201; Sorrelle v. Craig, 9 Ala. 534; Hadjo v. Gooden, 13 Ala. 718.
It appeared on the trial that the defendant, while seeking a difficulty with one King Woods, and endeavoring to get to him, was intercepted by the deceased, solely for the purpose of preventing a consummation of defendant's design against Woods, and that in the...
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People v. Beltran
...likely to cause violence, obscuring the reason, and leading to action from passion rather than judgment”); Holmes v. State (1890) 88 Ala. 26, 7 So. 193, 194 (adequate provocation is that “which would, in the mind of a just and reasonable man, stir resentment to violence, endangering life”).......
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People v. Beltran
...likely to cause violence, obscuring the reason, and leading to action from passion rather than judgment”); Holmes v. State (1890) 88 Ala. 26, 7 So. 193, 194 (adequate provocation is that “which would, in the mind of a just and reasonable man, stir resentment to violence, endangering life”).......
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State v. Park
... ... 333] man, stir resentment to violence, endangering life, the killing would be murder, applies here.' Holmes v. State (Ala.) 7 So. 193, 194 ... See Commonwealth v. York, 50 Mass. (9 Metc.) 93; People v. Marrow, 403 Ill. 69, 85 N.E.2d 34; Commonwealth v. Cisneros, ... 381 Pa. 447, 113 A.2d 293; 1 Wharton's Crim.Law (12th ed.) §§ 584, 585; 40 C.J.S. Homicide §§ 46, 47; 26 Am.Jur., ... ...
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People v. Beltran
...stir resentment likely to cause violence, obscuring the reason, and leading to action from passion rather than judgment"); Holmes v. State (Ala. 1890) 7 So. 193, 194 (adequate provocation is that "which would, in the mind of a just and reasonable man, stir resentment to violence, endangerin......