Syllabus by the Court.
The
evidence was sufficient to support the conviction of murder
and the verdict having the approval of the trial judge, of
judgment overruling a motion for new trial on the general
grounds must be affirmed. Two Justices dissent.
James
Josey was convicted of murder, without a recommendation. The
indictment charged that on February 11, 1943, in Terrell
County, he 'did then and there unlawfully and with force
and arms, feloniously and with malice aforethought, wantonly
and with reckless disregard for human life, drive and operate
an automobile on and over the public highway in this State
running through the City of Dawson, Georgia, and known as
Main Street in said city, and being part of
State Route No. 55, and near the fire department in the City
of Dawson, and while under the influence of intoxicating
liquors and drugs, and while so operating said automobile
over said highway did approach and overtake one J. D
Bridges, a human being in the peace of the State, who was
marching down said highway with a company of soldiers, said
James Josey not then and there having said automobile under
immediate control, as provided by law, so that as a result of
said unlawful, wanton, and reckless operation of said
automobile by James Josey said automobile was driven on
over, and into said J. D. Bridges, thereby killing and
murdering said J. D. Bridges by then and there inflicting a
mortal wound in and upon the person of the said Bridges, then
and there causing the death of the said Bridges, contrary to
the laws of said State, the good order, peace, and dignity
thereof.' The defendant entered a plea of not guilty.
On the
trial no witness was introduced on behalf of the defendant.
The first witness for the State was a physician who had
attended and examined Bridges, and who testified:
'Injuries sustained in a supposedly automobile accident
caused his death.'
The
next witness was Easter Kemp, who testified: She was riding
on the front seat of the automobile, sitting beside the
accused, who was driving the car. She did not small any
whisky on his breath, and did not know whether or not he was
drinking. 'I did not see these soldiers in the road
before he hit them. I do not know whether he saw them. I was
not doing anything at the time he hit these soldiers. I was
sitting in the front seat, and by the time I could hollo out
he had done run into them, so close on them he couldn't
stop. I did not say anything to him before he ran into the
soldiers. He did not say anything to me. We were not talking
at the time. He did not stop after he hit these soldiers; he
kept going * * * I told him to stop. He did not stop. He
didn't say anything at all. I didn't hear him. He
speeded up his car after he hit these soldiers. This happened
in front of the fire department. That is on Main Street in
Dawson, Georgia. That is a part of route No. 55. * * * I know
where East Church Street crosses Main Street up above the
fire department. There were two street lights on each side of
Church Street where it crosses Main Street. I know where the
library is on east side of Main Street. I don't know
whether the light is out there. I don't know
whether there are any lights along Main Street from Church
Street to where defendant ran into Home Guard. There are
trees on each side of the street, quite a few trees on the
east side and some on the other side. I did not see the
actual collision. I saw a shotgun or rifle that is used by
them come through the windshield. I didn't see any people
until we got right upon them about the time we run into them.
We were coming down the street this way at time this
happened. He picked me up at my house. We went to church. The
name of the church is Beulah. We were on our way back from
the church at the time this accident occurred.'
McGraw, a deputy sheriff, testified: 'I arrested James
Josey the next morning. * * * He made a statement to me about
this transaction. I did not threaten him in any way. I
offered him no inducement or hope of reward. That statement
was freely and voluntarily made to me by James Josey. In that
statement he admitted driving the car. I asked him if he had
been drinking liquor. He said he drank some the afternoon
before. He said he and four more--three more drank a pint. He
was not drinking when I arrested him. He said he had been
drinking before accident occurred.' 'I am familiar
with where Church Street intersects Main Street. There are
two white lights at each corner at the intersection. From
there down towards the Fire Department the light in front of
the library is out. There is just one on each corner, there
is none between there. They are out. There are quite a few
trees on each side of that street.'
Kay
Norton, a member of the State Guard, testified: 'The
State Guard was in session a little longer than usual at the
armory, and we had about thirty minutes to take our drill. We
went down and formed a company and marched down North Main
Street for nearly a block, and executed the rear march and
came back south, and that is the time we were run over. I was
leading my squad on the inside of the curb going down, and
executed a rear march which threw me in the rear coming back.
When they executed the rear march, that threw J. D. Bridges
on the front of the back towards town. We were marching in
south direction towards town. The car that hit Mr. Bridges
came from north behind the column of squads. At the time Mr.
Bridges was run over the company was going in same direction
the automobile was going. The automobile overtook
the squad. We were going at the rate of about five miles per
hour. There were two complete column of soldiers and three to
the left, a staggered column on the left next to the center
of road. There were three columns--one column only had three
men in it. That column had something like twenty-six men--we
threw them together. We generally work them in separate
squads, but there were some absent, and we threw them into
columns, one, two, and three squads, you might say three men
right next to the street. * * * Going south we were on the
right side of the street, I would say within about three feet
of the curb. I was on the inside next to the curb. * * * I
was the last man on the rear, and they had something better
than twenty-five men marching in front of me. * * * Going
down, I saw the car. When we were going down I saw the car in
the third block, had two dim lights burning, and he was going
at not a rapid speed, very normal rate of speed, maybe a
little better than fifteen miles per hour. He was in the
third block from me. There were lights there--white-way
lights were on each side of street. * * * Before I got to
where I could walk, I had them carry me down there to clarify
in my mind that there was no obstruction to prevent anybody
seeing. Anybody that could see to drive could see anybody on
the street walking. This was at the time the ban was on
pleasure driving, and there were no cars traveling on the
street at the time this car struck us in that section or end
of town. I got hit, very muchly so. As I said before, we
didn't have but a short time to drill; and we went down
and formed the company and went down Main Street towards the
depot. Just before we got to the intersection of Church and
Main we executed the rear march. I was in the lead. That
threw me to the rear of the line when we executed rear march,
and coming back up we hadn't gotten but half of the block
back when this car struck me. I was the first one hit, and
then it just ran right on over me some way. * * * And the car
continued right on through, never did stop. Mr. Bridges was
struck, I would say, forty to fifty feet from where I was
struck. * * * It drug Mr. Bridges from the place it hit him,
I should say, about three hundred feet--two hundred and fifty
to three hundred feet. * * * The impact almost stopped the
negro. In other words, you get fifteen or twenty men in an
impact, it will almost slow him to a standstill, until he had
to do something to get out. If he had left the
automobile it would have stopped itself. * * * There are some
trees on each side of the street. I don't know whether
there is a light in front of the library. I never noticed.
There are two lights on each side of Church Street. The white
way is on Main Street there at the Hall. There are lights all
the way through town. Any object going along there with those
lights you can see it six blocks. * * * We didn't put out
a guard to watch traffic while marching. * * *
Very seldom you saw a car that night while we were out. It
was between nine and ten o'clock when it happened. * * *
I didn't see a shotgun sticking in the windshield. I
didn't see the way mine went when he hit me. It might
have gone through the windshield, but when he hit me my gun
went somewhere. I don't know where it went. * * * I
imagine the bumper hit me. I didn't see what part of it
hit me, but when it hit me there was no warning
whatever.'
Jack
Duckin testified: 'I was there at the time Mr. Bridges
was killed. I was not in line. * * * I was not drilling with
the company at the time. I am a member of the Home Guard. We
had the company that night divided into platoons. Sergeant
Pace was drilling one platoon and Sergeant Marshall was
drilling the platoon that got run over. I had been down with
Sergeant Pace around there near the Ford Motor Co. and was
coming back, and this other platoon when the accident
happened I was walking in that direction. The first thing I
saw or knew I saw that something was wrong and guns flying
through the air and some of them yelled, and somebody holled
'Stop him,' and as near as I could tell the car was
approximately--the head of the column had...
