Nix v. State
| Decision Date | 29 July 1895 |
| Citation | 22 S.E. 975,97 Ga. 211 |
| Parties | NIX v. STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court.
1. There was no legal merit in that ground of the motion for a new trial which alleged error in the failure of the court to charge the jury "that they must be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did voluntarily make tracks in the presence of the witnesses, and did voluntarily pull of his shoe and let the witness put it into the tracks that they found going to and from the burnt house." Carr v. State, 10 S.E. 626, 84 Ga. 255 (4); McDuffie v. State, 17 S.E. 105, 90 Ga. 786; Delk v. State, 17 S.E. 269, 92 Ga. 453.
2. This court cannot consider the ground of the motion for a new trial alleging that the trial judge erred in not ruling out certain evidence, it not appearing upon what, if any, ground the motion to rule out was based.
3. The evidence against the accused, consisting almost entirely of testimony as to tracks found near the burnt building and traced to his home, which closely resembled tracks shown to have been made by him, and there being some evidence of his good character, and no satisfactory evidence showing any motive on his part to commit the crime alleged, the case at best was an exceedingly weak one, and if the conviction was justified at all it was barely warranted. This being so, and the newly-discovered evidence strongly suggesting a highly-probable cause of the fire entirely consistent with the innocence of the accused, the ends of justice require that there should be another hearing.
Error from superior court, Early county; J. L. Sweat, Judge.
Jerry Nix was convicted of arson, and brings error. Reversed.
R. H. Powell & Son, for plaintiff in error.
H. C. Sheffield, Sol. Gen., W. M. Harper, and J. M. Terrell, Atty. Gen., for the State.
Judgment reversed.
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