Minton v. State

• Decision Date: 20 July 1896
• Parties: MINTON. v. STATE.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

25 S.E. 626

99 Ga. 254

MINTON.

v.STATE.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

July 20, 1896.

Witness—Competency of Child—Criminal Law —Confessions —Instructions— Harmless Error.

1. Although a child eight years old, on a preliminary examination had for the purpose of testing his competency as a witness, stated that he did not know what an oath was, yet where he also stated that he knew what it was "to go up in the courthouse, and swear you have to tell the truth, " that the law would punish him if he told a story, and that he was bound to tell the truth when sworn, and the examination, as a whole, disclosed such a degree of intelligence and knowledge on the child's part as to satisfy the judge of his competency, this court will not reverse a ruling permitting the child to be examined as a witness concerning the facts in issue.

2. That one under arrest and accused of a crime voluntarily asked another, "Would it be better for me to tell the truth?" or "What had I better do?" and received the reply, "You had better tell the truth about it, " affords no cause for excluding from evidence a confession then made, on the ground that it was improperly induced by another. "The hope that excludes is that which some other person excites." Pen. Code, § 1006, citing Bohanan v. State, 18 S. E. 302, 92 Ga. 32. And see Miller v. State, 21 S. E. 128, 94 Ga. 1, 11.

3. The liability of a witness to misunderstand the language of one making a confession is one of the reasons for the rule requiring all confessions to be scanned with care, but not the only one; and while a judge, in charging a jury, should not use words which may impress them with the idea that this is the only reason for receiving a confession with caution, his so doing will not of itself be cause for a new trial.

4. There was sufficient evidence to warrant the verdict that no material error was committed, and the record discloses no valid reason for granting a new trial.

(Syllabus by the Court,)

Error from superior court, Dodge county; C. C. Smith, Judge.

Scott Minton was convicted of murder, and brings error. Affirmed.

The following is the official report:

Scott Minton and Abe Thomas were indicted for the murder of Flem Lee. Minton was tried and found guilty, with a recommendation to life imprisonment. His motion for new trial was overruled, and he excepted. The motion was upon the general grounds that the verdict was contrary to law, evidence, etc. Further, because the court erred in admitting the testimony of Flem Lee, introduced by the state. To said testimony, defendant objected that the witness did not understand the nature of an oath, and was incompetent to testify, and his testimony should be excluded, for that the witness, upon the preliminary examination on the present trial, said: "I don't know what an oath is. I don't know what it means." It appears from the record that this witness, Flem Lee, is the son of the deceased, and was eight years old at the time he testified. He seems to have been examined quite fully touching his competency. Among other things, he testified: "If I swear to a lie, I will go to hell. Am bound to tell the truth when I am sworn." "I can read a little." "Hell is a bad place. They put you in the fire in hell, and it will burn you. God made me, and if I am a good man, and behave myself, when I die I will go to heaven." "When you say, 'Do you understand an oath?' I don't know what you are talking about. I know what it is to go up in the courthouse, and swear you have to tell the truth. If I tell a story, I will go to hell. I don't know what will be the consequences in this world. Nobody has told me to make these answers. My mother never said a word at all to me about it. She never told me to tell the truth, nor told me to tell a story, and nobody has been talking to me about it. The law will punish me if I tell a story. Nobody told me that. That is the law of the Bible. They would give me a libel if I tell a story. I don't know what an oath is; don't know what it means. I don't know that if I were to tell a lie on Scott Minton, and he was to be hung, that I would be hung too. I don't know anything about people going to the penitentiary for telling lies in the courthouse, nor do I know what the punishment is. When you come in the courthouse to swear, ain't like telling stories out of the courthouse; that ain't like coming inside." Error in admitting the testimony of Taylor James, introduced...