Milton v. State

• Decision Date: 28 June 1902
• Citation: 134 Ala. 42,32 So. 653
• Parties: MILTON v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

32 So. 653

134 Ala. 42

MILTON v. STATE.

Supreme Court of Alabama

June 28, 1902

Appeal from circuit court, Crenshaw county; J. C. Richardson, Judge.

Lee Milton was convicted of manslaughter, and appeals. Affirmed.

The minute entry of thecourt as to the arraignment, etc., of the defendant, which was had upon March 12, 1902, was in words and figures as follows: "Comes the solicitor for the state, and the defendant being in open court, and attended by his counsel, Sentell, Hamilton & Powell, is duly and legally arraigned upon the indictment, and for his plea thereto sayeth he is not guilty. The defendant being in open court and attended by his counsel, the 19th day of March, 1902, it being the Wednesday of the second week of this term, is fixed for the date of the trial of this cause, and fifty is fixed as the number of special jurors to be drawn in this case, and the court ordered the legal jury box of Crenshaw county Alabama, to be brought into open court, and said order being obeyed, and the box being well shaken, the presiding judge in open court publicly drew from said jury box the names of twenty-five persons to serve as special jurors in this case. After the presiding judge had drawn said twenty-five names from said jury box, and before the completion of the drawing of the said fifty special jurors ordered in this case, the names in the said jury box were exhausted; that is, there were not names in said jury box after said twenty-five names had been drawn therefrom. The court then and there directed the sheriff of Crenshaw county, Alabama, to summon from the qualified citizens of this county twenty-five persons necessary to complete the number of special jurors ordered in this case by the court. The sheriff thereupon then and there obeyed said order of the court, and duly and legally summoned twenty-five qualified citizens of the county to complete the number of special jurors, the names of whom are as follows to wit: * * *. The clerk, immediately, in open court and in the presence of the presiding judge, made a list of the said fifty special jurors; and the court ordered the clerk to issue a mandate to the sheriff to summon said fifty special jurors to appear as special jurors in this case at the court house in this county, in Luverne, Alabama, at nine o'clock on Wednesday morning of second week of this term of this court, the same being the 19th day of March, 1902. The court ordered the sheriff of said county to summon said fifty special jurors to appear at said time and place. The court ordered the sheriff to serve on the defendant, one entire day before the day set for trial, a copy of the indictment," etc. On the trial of the cause there was evidence introduced for the state tending to show that the defendant was guilty as charged in the indictment, while the evidence for the defendant tended to show that he cut the deceased in self-defense, and while the said deceased was about to strike him with a saw. During the examination of one Maddox as a witness for the state he testified that he arrived at the place where the deceased was cut a short time after the difficulty, and found the deceased lying on the ground. Thereupon the witness, in answer to a question as to whether Tom Acreman, the deceased, said anything about his condition while he was lying on the ground, testified that Acreman made the following statement: " 'I am going to die before morning. Send for a doctor. My bowels are out on the ground now. I am going to die before morning.' He also said to his father that the cut would kill him, and he would die...