Morrell v. State
| Decision Date | 16 April 1903 |
| Citation | 136 Ala. 44,34 So. 208 |
| Parties | MORRELL v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Appeal from Circuit Court, Shelby County; John Pelham, Judge.
Lou Morrell was convicted of murder in the first degree, and she appeals. Affirmed.
When the defendant was arraigned for trial, she pleaded not guilty, and the cause was set for trial for a succeeding day of the term of the court. When the cause was called for trial on the day set therefor, the defendant, through her attorney asked leave of the court to withdraw the plea of not guilty and put in the plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. The state objected upon the ground that the plea of not guilty on the ground of insanity came too late. The court sustained the objection, and refused to allow the defendant to withdraw her plea of not guilty, and to this ruling the defendant duly excepted. The evidence introduced for the state tended to show that the deceased was the husband of the defendant; that upon the deceased going home one evening he found the defendant administering medicine to her sick baby; that the defendant did not fix his supper; that he became enraged, and told the defendant to make haste, and get through giving the medicine to the baby, as he was going to kill her, and then kill himself; that he loaded the gun in the presence of the defendant, and set it down by him; that he then laid down upon a pallet upon the floor, and continued to abuse the defendant; that after a while he fell asleep, and when the defendant had finished with the baby she took the gun which he had loaded, and stepping a few feet from the deceased, she leveled the gun at his head and fired, killing him instantly. The defendant testified that she was afraid of the deceased and killed him rather than be killed by him. The defendant sought to introduce in evidence the testimony of several witnesses showing that the deceased was a turbulent overbearing, and dangerous man. The state objected to this evidence, the court sustained the objection, and the defendant duly excepted.
D. R. McMillan, for appellant.
Massey Wilson, Atty. Gen., for the State.
Section 4939 of the Code requires that "when the defense of insanity is set up in any criminal prosecution it must be by special plea, interposed at the time of arraignment." etc. Defendant's absolute right to defend on the ground of insanity was lost by her failure to plead to that end when she was arraigned,...
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...by reason of his alleged insanity, this question being triable only under the special plea." Criminal Code of Ala., 1896, § 4939. In Morrell v. State defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree. Upon arraignment she plead not guilty. When the cause was called for trial on the day ......