Lane v. State

• Decision Date: 26 July 1888
• Parties: LANE v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

4 So. 730

85 Ala. 11

LANE v. STATE.

Supreme Court of Alabama

July 26, 1888

Appeal from circuit court, Cherokee county; JOHN B. TALLEY, Judge.

The appellant, William H. Lane, was indicted, tried, and convicted of an assault with intent to murder one Thomas J Woodward, and was sentenced to hard labor for the county for a term of two years. On the trial there was evidence for the state tending to show that the said Woodward came up to the scales of the Bass Furnace Company, in whose employ the defendant was, with a load of ore to be weighed; that defendant, after weighing the ore, went to his desk to put the weight down on a piece of paper; that while at the desk Woodward came in the office to look at the weight, as registered on the beam of the scale; that, upon being asked by defendant what he was doing, Woodward said to him that he wanted to see that he got fair weights and justice; that he only wanted fair weights and justice; that defendant said that was what he got there, that Woodward then said that he had not been getting it; that thereupon defendant called him a liar; Woodward called him another; that the defendant ordered him out of the office; that Woodward turned and went out; that when he got out some distance from the office the defendant struck him on the head with one of the iron weights used in weighing on the scales, and then went back in the office, got his pistol, and drew it, when Woodward told him not to shoot; that he had already knocked a hole in his head. The defendant introduced evidence tending to show that Woodward, as he walked out of the office, called him "a son of a bitch;" that he had on previous occasions told different persons that he was going to have fair and just weights, or the defendant would have him to whip; and there were many such threats made by Woodward against the defendant brought out in the evidence for the defense. In the argument of the case before the jury, the attorneys for the state drew a strong contrast and comparison between the "rich corporation," the Bass Furnace Company, and the poor old man, Woodward, and among other things said: "Gentlemen of the jury, when it comes to this, that a poor laboring man hauling ore to a rich corporation, or to anybody else, for that matter, cannot look at the beam that he may see he gets just weights, and, when he does do it, he must be knocked down with an iron weight, then farewell to liberty and rights." And then, referring to the defendant as being in the employ of a rich corporation, the solicitor further says: "He is a nice fellow, [referring to the defendant;] he thinks because he is in the employ of the Bass Furnace Company his weights must not be called in question. This poor man must be kicked out like dog, and as he goes away must be knocked in the back of the head with a weight and he throws himself back upon the dignity of his position and expects money to turn him loose. Backed by a rich corporation, he can do as he pleases, and money can do anything." To these and like statements in the argument of the counsel for the state defendant excepted, and asked charges to be given by the court to raise the question of the propriety of their being used before the jury, among which was the one copied in the...