Martin v. State

• Decision Date: 25 June 1914
• Citation: 66 So. 139,68 Fla. 18
• Parties: MARTIN v. STATE.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

66 So. 139

68 Fla. 18

MARTIN v. STATE.

Florida Supreme Court

June 25, 1914

Error to Circuit Court, Holmes County; D. J. Jones, Judge.

Richard Martin was convicted of murder in the second degree, and brings error. Affirmed.

Syllabus by the Court

SYLLABUS

In a prosecution on an indictment for murder in the first degree it is not error to admit, over a general objection that it is 'immaterial and irrelevant,' testimony as to a previous difficulty shortly before the homicide, which evidence contains some statements of the circumstances of the previous difficulty that tended to show a premeditated design to kill the deceased as charged; and a verdict of murder in the second degree does not render the ruling erroneous.

Evidence of an experiment should be received with caution, and should be admitted only when it is obvious to the court from the nature of the experiments that the jury will be enlightened rather than confused.

If, in the discretion of the trial court, proffered evidence of an experiment is rejected, the appellate court will not review the ruling, unless an abuse of discretion appears.

Where fundamental rights are not invaded, and it is not clearly shown that the trial court abused sound discretion in admitting testimony that may fairly tend to test the credibility of a witness, or it does not appear that the purpose or effect of the testimony is merely to degrade the witness or to injure him before the jury, the action of the trial court will not be disturbed.

COUNSEL Price & Price and Smith & Davis, all of Marianna and A. W. Weeks, of Bonifay, for plaintiff in error.

T. F. West, Atty. Gen., and C. O. Andrews, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

OPINION

PER CURIAM.

Richard Martin was indicted for murder in the first degree for the homicide of Charley Stephens by fatally shooting him, and convicted of murder in the second degree. Self-defense was the theory of the defense interposed. A writ of error was taken.

The defendant was the aggressor in a difficulty with the deceased earlier in the day of the homicide, and latter in the day the defendant had a shooting encounter with the father of the deceased, during which encounter the deceased was not present. Just after this the deceased came upon the scene and was fatally shot by the defendant, the deceased being unarmed except, as claimed by the defense, with a pocketknife.

Testimony was admitted as to a difficulty which occurred previously on the same day between the deceased and the defendant. In this testimony are statements as to the circumstances of the previous difficulty, which may not have been necessary in proving the fact of a previous difficulty between the parties, but the objections were that 'the details of a prior difficulty would be immaterial and irrelevant,' and the motion to strike was general 'as to any details of any difficulty that might have occurred between the defendant and Charley Stephens prior to the time of the difficulty in which Stephens lost his life as being irrelevant and immaterial.'

Even if it can be said on this record that the evidence admitted as to the circumstances of the previous difficulty so related to the merits of such difficulty as to violate a rule of evidence, it does not clearly appear that the overruling of the general and indefinite objections and motion to strike constitute harmful and reversible errors when the peculiar circumstances of this case are considered. The circumstances testified to tended to show a premeditated design to kill the deceased with which the defendant was charged; and the fact that the jury found the defendant guilty of murder in the second degree instead of murder in the first degree, as alleged in the indictment, does not make the ruling of the court upon the evidence erroneous.

It is contended that the court erred in refusing to allow experiments to be made and to admit evidence of experiments made, to show how near the defendant's pistol must have...