Lewis v. State

• Decision Date: 17 March 1941
• Docket Number: 4201
• Citation: 148 S.W.2d 668,202 Ark. 6
• Parties: LEWIS v. STATE
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

148 S.W.2d 668

202 Ark. 6

LEWIS v. STATE

4201

Supreme Court of Arkansas

March 17, 1941

Appeal from Phillips Circuit Court; E. M. Pipkin, Judge; affirmed.

Judgment affirmed.

D S. Heslep and G. D. Walker, for appellant.

Jack Holt, Attorney General, and Jno. P. Streepey, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.

OPINION

MEHAFFY, J.

The appellant, Percy Lee Lewis, was convicted in the circuit court of Phillips county, of murder in the first degree, and sentenced to death. This appeal is prosecuted to reverse the judgment of the circuit court.

On October 26, 1940, information was filed by the prosecuting attorney of Phillips county charging the appellant with murder in the first degree alleged to have been committed on July 28, 1940, by shooting W. H. Patton with a pistol. The appellant was unable to employ counsel, and counsel were appointed by the court to defend him. On arraignment the appellant pleaded guilty of homicide, and the court ordered the jury impaneled to determine the degree of the offense and fix the punishment. Upon the trial the jury rendered a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree and fixed the punishment at death by electrocution.

On November 8, 1940, the appellant was sentenced to be put to death by electrocution, and the sentence to be carried out January 3, 1941. The case is here on appeal.

E. P Hickey, Jr., a deputy sheriff of Phillips county, testified that he assisted in the investigation of the state against the appellant, and arrested the appellant; he arrived at the place where the crime was committed about an hour and a half after the killing; that he had in his possession the bullet that Mr. Patton was killed with; received it from Dr. King, and it has been kept in the office ever since. The bullet was introduced in evidence. After arresting the appellant, the deputy sheriff took him to Wabash to Dr. Parker's office where appellant received first aid treatment; Dr. Parker gave him a shot to stop his suffering; he was then taken back to Helena and put in jail; after that the appellant made and signed a statement which was made freely and voluntarily and without any threats of violence or promises of reward.

The appellant objected to the following question and answer: "Q. Where did you get the pistol that you used that night? A. I got it out of Mr. Craig's house the time that I went in there."

Appellant objected to this on the ground that the question and answer are for the purpose of showing a prior crime entirely unrelated and unconnected with the crime with which the appellant is charged; that the same is incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial, and is prejudicial and is intended to inflame the minds of the jury. The objection was overruled, and appellant saved his exceptions.

The state then introduced the statement of appellant taken in the identification office on August 5, 1940, before Edgar Hickey and John Anderson. The statement gave appellant's name and where he lived, and the confession stated that he stayed at home with the baby and let his wife go to town first on Saturday night, July 27th; his wife came home around 9:30 or 10:00 o'clock, and then appellant went up town; he came home around 11:30 and lay down across the bed; he woke up about 4 o'clock and left the house intending to go to Watson's house to get some chickens out of their chicken house; he knew when he left home that he was going there to steal some chickens; he came across the dummy line and hit the mouth of the alley behind Craig's; he saw somebody there by the hospital and went back into the alley; when he was over in the yard he saw the colored nightwatchman in the alley by the servant's house, and appellant ran and got in the hedge fence behind the Watson's; he came out of the alley behind Craig's garage and went toward town; the nightwatchman stopped there on the sidewalk, stayed a while, and then went on up town; as soon as the nightwatchman had left, appellant got out and went over to the hen house again; in about fifteen minutes he saw someone in the alley throwing the light on Dr. Mattox's house and then on the servant's house; appellant got in the hedge fence again and was going out of the alley there; they came on down the alley and one of them said it sounded like he heard someone in the fence; they threw the light on the fence and just as they did appellant shot twice and ran; appellant was shot and knocked down; he got up and ran through the front of the house, and when he got in front of Mr. Keen's a dog got after him, and there was a white man there who hissed the dog on appellant; appellant crossed the railroad and went up to Ida Wood's house and asked her to take his clothes off, that he was shot, and asked her to get him a doctor. He was then asked where he got the pistol that he used that night, and he answered that he got it out of Mr. Craig's house the time he went in there; after the shooting he threw the pistol away in the Johnson grass just the other side of the railroad north of an old gin; at the time of the shooting he only had two shells. The statement is then made that this statement had been read to appellant and is correct; that he made it of his own free will and accord and without their offering him any reward or promise of immunity for making it, and that they warned him that anything he might say could be used for or against him in court.

After the introduction of the confession, Mr. Hickey testified on cross-examination, that the appellant was shot and he took him to a doctor, and the doctor did not think ...