Morris v. State

• Decision Date: 19 February 1946
• Docket Number: 15390.
• Parties: MORRIS v. STATE.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

37 S.E.2d 345

200 Ga. 471

MORRIS v. STATE.

No. 15390.

Supreme Court of Georgia

February 19, 1946

Rehearing Denied March 5, 1946.

Syllabus by the Court.

1. A ground of a motion for new trial complaining of the admission of evidence or of documents going out with the jury presents nothing for decision by the Supreme Court where no objection is shown to have been made at the trial.

2. The excerpts from the charge of the court are not, for reasons stated in the opinion, infra, subject to the criticisms made by the movant.

3. The evidence authorized the verdict.

L. H Morris was indicted in Bibb superior court for murdering his wife, Mrs. Millie Morris, by administering to her poisons alleged to be strychnine sulphate and other deadly poisons. The defendant filed in that court a petition for a change of venue, alleging that, because of the publicity given by the newspapers, a state of prejudice existed which made it impossible for him to obtain a fair trial and which threatened mob violence. The solicitor-general consented to an order of the trial judge directing that the case be tried in Houston superior court. The case was tried in that court in May, 1945. The jury returned a verdict of guilty without a recommendation, and the defendant was sentenced to death by electrocution as provided by law. His motion for new trial was denied on October 16, 1945. The exception here is to the judgment overruling the motion for new trial.

The State's evidence showed that the defendant and the deceased had been married about twelve years. They lived on White Street in Macon, Bibb County, Georgia, at the time of the wife's death on the night of February 16, 1945. They had two children, both boys, ages ten and twelve. The deceased had never complained to the members of her family about her health or shown evidence of despair, although they had been in contact with her almost weekly. The defendant was a bus driver in the City of Macon, and the deceased was employed by the Macon Shirt Company. The defendant, while driving a bus for the M. & M. Bus Company on the Camp Wheeler road about two years prior to his wife's death picked up Mrs. Ethis Pryor, who was at that time living on Cherry Street in Macon. The defendant and Mrs. Pryor became intimate and had illicit sexual relations frequently thereafter. He saw her twice a day in her apartment. He requested her to obtain an apartment nearby his home, which she did, and there became acquainted with Mrs Morris and the boys, and visited them. Mrs. Morris became aware of the relationship between her husband and Mrs. Pryor and protested to both of them. Thereupon Mrs. Pryor moved a considerable distance away, where she lived at the time of Mrs. Morris's death. The defendant continued to visit her at her new residence until about eight days before the wife's death, during which time he assured Mrs. Pryor that he had obtained a divorce from his wife, and at one time exhibited to her some papers which purported to be his divorce decree. Mrs. Pryor, however, found out that the defendant had not separated from his wife and was not divorced, and told him that she wanted nothing else to do with him and returned to him certain small gifts which he had made to her. On the next day he wrote her a letter in which he stated that he regretted what had occurred and said: 'Before long I can come to you and make you the happiest time of your life. It will not be long either.' Then he requested her to meet him and added: 'So please let's see each other and I will promise you that it won't be long before we will be happy together. These things I am sending back. I want you to take them this time and forever.' The letter further stated that the writer loved Mrs. Pryor and knew that she loved him. It also appears that he sent her two valentines, which Mrs. Pryor testifies she received on February 14, 1945, and on the same date she received a postal card from Mrs. Morris, which card advised her that there had been no divorce, and that the writer of the card had not applied for any divorce, that the matter had been turned over to the law, and that the writer wanted the law to put a stop to the relations between Mrs. Pryor and her husband.

The evidence further showed that the defendant had telephoned the residence of Mrs. Pryor to inquire if she had received the valentines and what she thought of them. He talked to Mrs. Daniells with whom Mrs. Pryor lived. Mrs. Pryor read to the defendant over the telephone the card which she had received from Mrs. Morris, and in that conversation told him that she was going to take it to Mrs. McCord, a policewoman for the City of Macon. He requested her not to do that, and stated that he would have everything straightened out in a short time. Mrs. Pryor did, however, take the letters she had received from the defendant, the valentines, and the card from Mrs. Morris to the police station and delivered them to a girl in the office of Mrs. McCord. She testified that she did this because she had been threatened several times by the defendant with death if she broke off relations with him, and that she was afraid of him. The policemen, after receiving these documents, went to the residence of the defendant for the purpose of talking to him and his wife, but neither was at home, and they failed to see either before the death of Mrs. Morris. At the time of the death of Mrs. Morris, the Morris family was living in a house at 342 White Street in the City of Macon, Bibb County, Georgia, and the house was jointly occupied by Mr.

and Mrs. Smith. Mrs. Morris, on the afternoon before her death that night, came home from work between 5 and 6 o'clock. She first talked to a neighbor, L. W. Lewis, and arranged to go with him on the following Sunday to see a house which he had built and which she had arranged with him to rent. Mrs. Smith, who lived in the same house with her, went over to her apartment and talked with her until about 10 o'clock, just before the defendant arrived. She found Mrs. Morris fully dressed, and both of the children were there. Mrs. Smith went out of the apartment for a short time and returned about 8 o'clock and remained until near 10 o'clock. The son, Bobby, had telephoned his father earlier in the evening that his mother was not feeling well and requested him to get off and come home early. Mr. Pierce, who was a dispatcher for the Georgia Power Company for whom the defendant was employed, released the defendant at his own request at about 8:30, and he testified that the defendant should have been home by 9 o'clock. He reached home, however, shortly after 10 o'clock. Mrs. Morris told Mrs. Smith how long she had lived with her first husband and how long she had lived with the defendant, and stated that that was the last day she would live with him. The defendant called Mrs. Smith in about 30 minutes after he arrived home, which was about 10:30, and Mrs. Smith went into the Morris apartment and found Mrs. Morris lying on the bed, fully dressed with the exception of her shoes. Mrs. Smith testified that Mrs. Morris looked like she was trying to get up. She had never seen one with a convulsion, but she thought Mrs. Morris was having convulsions. She was jerky and drawing and could not keep straight. Her arms were drawing and her back was jerky and so were her legs, and she looked like she was trying to chew something. She told Mrs. Smith she was dying, requesting Mrs. Smith to please rub her hands and arms. She stayed in that condition about five minutes. She screamed twice and died. When Mrs. Smith went in, the defendant went out on the front porch and requested her to stay with his wife until he could get help. When Mrs. Morris screamed, Mrs. Smith called the defendant and he came back to the door and looked in and went away again. He came back on the porch and talked with Mrs. Smith a while after his wife died.

The evidence shows that Mrs. Morris had a nervous affliction and had been treated by a doctor, who had prescribed a medicine which she had but which was not poisonous.

Dr. Poland, a druggist, testified that about February 9 the defendant bought some strychnine sulphate from him. The defendant told him he wanted it to kill rats, that he was bothered with wharf rats and his neighbors were bothered with them, and he wanted the strychnine to kill them. The strychnine was in the form of 1/40-grain tablets which could be pulverized. They were put in a box, and no prescription number was put on the box, but it was marked 'strychnine,' and marked with a poison label.

Mrs. Smith testified that, while there had been possibly one or two large rats on the premises during the time they had lived there, the rats had not given anybody any trouble.

Several days before the death of Mrs. Morris, the defendant showed a Mr. Frazier, who was also an employee of the Georgia Power Company, a box of strychnine and talked to him about whether strychnine would produce death.

After the death of Mrs. Morris, the defendant sent her body to Hart's Mortuary and ordered that it be immediately embalmed. The process of embalming required the evacuation of the stomach, that is, the content of the stomach is pumped out. The entire circulatory system was emptied in the process of embalming, and another fluid was put in the circulatory system in the place of blood. The evidence showed that the vital organs were removed from the body of Mrs. Morris, and that a chemist, a member of the faculty of Mercer University made a chemical examination of the stomach and found one-half grain of morphine in the walls of the stomach. He also examined a glass which the defendant's confession stated was used to administer the poison to his wife, and found strychnine in the glass. He testified that, in view of...