Howard v. State

• Citation: 100 S.W. 756
• Parties: HOWARD v. STATE.
• Decision Date: 04 March 1907
• Court: Supreme Court of Arkansas

100 S.W. 756

HOWARD v. STATE.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

March 4, 1907.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Union County; George W. Hays, Judge.

Dinah Howard appeals from a conviction of murder in the first degree. Modified and affirmed.

W. E. Patterson, for appellant. Wm. F. Kirby, Atty. Gen., and Dan Taylor, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

RIDDICK, J.

This is an appeal by Dinah Howard, a negro woman, from a judgment of the Union circuit court for the Eastern district convicting her of murder in the first degree for shooting and killing J. W. Morrison, the town marshal of Huttig, and sentencing her to be hanged. The murder charged against the defendant was alleged to have been committed on the 20th of June, 1906, and the circumstances under which it was committed, briefly stated, are as follows: Dinah Howard, on the night previous to the night on which Morrison was shot, had a quarrel with Richard Givens, a negro man, and in a struggle between them a pistol was fired, and Givens was killed. She testified that the quarrel arose over the payment of $6 which Givens owed her, and to secure the payment of which he had pawned his pistol to her, and that in the struggle the pistol was accidentally discharged, and Givens killed. The court permitted the prosecuting attorney to show that she had made statements tending to show that the killing of Givens was intentional. No objection was made to this evidence, and we need not consider it here, for whether she shot Givens intentionally is not material in this case. It is a fact that Givens was killed, and that there were reasonable grounds to believe that defendant had taken his life unlawfully and was endeavoring to escape. The county in which the crime was committed adjoined the Louisiana line, and the evidence shows that the intention of the defendant was to evade arrest by escaping into Louisiana. The information that Givens had been killed by defendant coming to J. W. Morrison, who was marshal of the town of Huttig, and it seems also deputy sheriff of the county, he at once took steps to apprehend and arrest the defendant. During the day following the night Givens was killed, Dinah Howard, the defendant, remained in hiding in a negro cabin at a place called Dollar Junction about two miles from Huttig, and the officer did not find her until the following night. By the aid of Eugene Gilberry, a negro man, the officer ascertained her place of hiding, and also learned that it was her intention to walk that night to Monroe, La., with Gilberry and Kid West, two negro acquaintances. Gilberry did not in fact intend to aid her to escape, but, under pretense of aiding her, he intended, by a plan prearranged with the officers, to lead her to a place where she would be arrested. Just before the time when West and Gilberry were to go to the cabin where the defendant was in hiding, West was arrested and placed in custody by the officers. Gilberry then went to the cabin and told the woman that he was ready to start, and that West was waiting to go with them. The defendant disguised herself by putting on men's clothing, and then went out with Gilberry, as she supposed, to meet West. Gilberry ascertained that she had a pistol with her in the pocket of the coat she wore. After they had gone a short distance, they stopped, and Gilberry told her to remain there until he went for Kid West. Gilberry then went to where Morrison and S. C. Powell, who had been summoned to aid in the arrest, were stationed. He told them that the woman had a pistol and might hurt some one, and he asked if it would not be better to allow him to shoot her. Morrison told him, "No," but directed that, when Gilberry and the woman came up close to the officers, Gilberry should grab her around the arms, so that she could not use them. It was then agreed that, when the officers approached Gilberry and the woman, he should ask, "Is that you, Kid West?" and that one of the officers should answer, "Yes." Gilberry then returned to the woman, and, under pretense of taking her to meet West, he walked with her towards the officers. Morrison, the officer, to avoid recognition and facilitate the arrest, had disguised himself by putting on an old hat and a coat owned by Dr. Perrin. It was about 10 o'clock p. m. The night was very dark, with a misty rain falling, so that it was impossible to distinguish any one more than a few feet away. As Gilberry and the woman approached the officers, he asked the question, "Is that you, Kid West?" to which one of the officers responded, "Yes." Then, when they were only a few feet from the officers, Gilberry suddenly grabbed the woman by the right arm, and Morrison reached forward towards her, and said: "Oh, yes, I have you at last." Whereupon the woman instantly jerked the pistol from her pocket with her left hand and fired several times rapidly and then ran. When the firing commenced, Gilberry let go her arm, stepped back, drew his pistol, and commenced to fire at her. Powell also fired his pistol, and supposed he had shot the woman, though the night was so dark he was unable to see more than her form, or to tell whether she was dressed in man's clothing or not, and it is possible she had already fled when he began shooting. The last shot fired by Gilberry was fired in the direction of Powell. Powell then told him to mind where he was shooting, and asked him where Morrison was. Gilberry replied: "Back of you, and I think shot." They then went back and found that Morrison was wounded and unable to speak. He had been struck by a ball from a pistol in the left breast, and died in a few moments. The defendant remained out in the woods that night. She came up to a negro cabin next morning, stated that she had killed a negro man two nights before, and that a white man had been killed at Dollar Junction the night before. She asked for a change of clothing and permission to stay in the garden, and was arrested there some hours afterwards.

The defendant, in her testimony on the trial, denied that she had any pistol with her on the night that Morrison was killed, or that she was present when Morrison was killed, though she admits that she was with Gilberry shortly before the shooting, and that she intended going with him and West across the state line; but the evidence we think shows clearly that defendant was present, and that she fired the shot that killed Morrison. It is true that the evidence tends to show that the negro Gilberry, who was assisting in the arrest, did some wild shooting, and that his last shot was fired in the direction of Powell, and that Morrison was at that time beyond Powell from Gilberry. It is, of course, possible that, firing in the intense darkness, his shot may have killed Morrison; but the testimony of both Powell and Gilberry tends strongly to show that the defendant fired the shot that killed Morrison. The circumstance that Morrison, though he was armed with a pistol, took no part in the shooting, but staggered away, tends to show that he was probably struck and mortally wounded by one of the first shots fired, and the evidence all shows that the woman began firing first immediately upon being seized by the negro and approached by the officers.

After considering the evidence, we feel no doubt that the defendant is guilty of some degree of homicide, and the...