Joiner v. State

• Decision Date: 12 January 1904
• Parties: JOINER . v. STATE.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

46 S.E. 412

119 Ga. 315

JOINER .

v.STATE.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Jan. 12, 1904.

CRIMINAL LAW—CONFESSIONS—EVIDENCE— DECLARATIONS OF PROSECUTING WITNESS—WIFE-BEATING.

1. Evidence of a third party as to statements of a wife that her husband had just beaten her, made in the presence of the husband without denial on his part, and under such circumstances that his silence amounted to an admission, is admissible on the trial of the husband for wife-beating, although the wife declines to testify at the trial against her husband. Knight v. State, 39 S. E. 928, 114 Ga. 48, 88 Am. St. Rep. 17.

2. While it is true that one accused of crime cannot be convicted upon his confessions alone, yet if, on the trial of one charged with wife-beating, it is shown that he and his wife had been together in his house, that the wife had run crying from the house, called a policeman, and showed him a swollen eye, and a bowl of bloody water in which she had bathed her nose, the jury may properly regard this as sufficient corroboration of the husband's confession to show the corpus delicti, and to justify a conviction. Pen. Code 1895, § 1005, and cases cited.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Error from City Court of Macon; Robt Hodges, Judge.

Jim Joiner was convicted of assault, and brings error. Affirmed.

Julian F. Urquhart and M. W. Harris, for plaintiff in error.

Wm. Brunson, Sol. Gen., for the State.

SIMMONS, C. J. Judgment affirmed. All the Justices concur.