Pate v. State

Decision Date21 January 1909
PartiesPATE v. STATE.
CourtAlabama Supreme Court

Rehearing Denied Feb. 5, 1909.

Appeal from Law and Equity Court, Walker County; T. L. Sowell Judge.

Seab Pate was convicted of larceny, and he appeals. Affirmed.

The evidence as to the swearing of the witness McLaughlin on the former trial was that all the witnesses were sworn together and that he and Mrs. Upton were the main witnesses in the case, and was examined and testified on the trial, and that since said trial he had moved to Mississippi and was living there at the time of this trial. After this introductory testimony, a witness was permitted to testify as to what McLaughlin swore on a former trial.

The following charges were refused to the defendant: (1) General affirmative charge. (2) "I charge you, gentlemen of the jury, that unless you are satisfied from the evidence beyond all reasonable doubt that the cow the defendant is accused of stealing was a black or a black-brown cow, with a white face you cannot convict the defendant."

Leith &amp Gunn, for appellant.

Alexander M. Garber, Atty. Gen., and Thomas W. Martin, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

TYSON C.J.

The first exception reserved relates to the overruling of defendant's challenge for cause to certain persons on the ground they were deputy sheriffs, and therefore incompetent to serve. The statute (section 7245, Code 1907) exempts sheriffs and their deputies from jury duty, but does not disqualify them. This exemption is a mere personal privilege, which they may waive.

Jackson v. State, 74 Ala. 26; Spigener v. State, 62 Ala. 383.

The testimony of the witness McLaughlin given on the former trial was properly admitted. It was open to the trial judge to find that this witness had been legally sworn and examined upon the former trial of the defendant for the offense, and that since that trial he had moved permanently or for an indefinite time to the state of Mississippi, where he still resided at the date of this trial. Jacobi v. State, 133 Ala. 1, 32 So. 158; Lowe v. State, 86 Ala. 47, 5 So. 435. It may be seriously doubted whether the objection interposed raised this question because of its generality. But, conceding that it did, upon the entire evidence pertinent to the inquiry we feel no hesitancy in holding that the ruling was correct.

We do not find in the record that the court allowed witness J. B. Ellis to testify as to what defendant's wife said on the night of his arrest. The contention of appellant's counsel that the court erred in this respect, being unsupported by the record, is, of course, without merit.

The prosecution offered testimony tending to show that at the time the defendant sold the cow to McLaughlin he wrote a name upon a piece of paper as the seller of the cow. To contradict this the defendant offered testimony tending to show that he...

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6 cases
  • United States v. Wood
    • United States
    • U.S. Supreme Court
    • December 7, 1936
    ...as to various officers held to be qualified, when not found to have actual bias: Jackson v. State, 74 Ala. 26, 29 (coroner); Pate v. State, 158 Ala. 1, 3, 48 So. 388 (deputy sheriff); Spittorff v. State, 108 Ind. 171, 172, 8 N.E. 911 (bailiff); O'Connor v. State, 9 Fla. 215, 221, 222 (coron......
  • State v. Harp
    • United States
    • Missouri Supreme Court
    • May 18, 1928
    ... ... 66; Harris v. State, 160 S.W ... 447; Valentine v. State, 194 P. 254. (c) The same ... rule applies where the witness is shown to be absent from the ... State at the time of the second trial. Perry v ... State, 87 Ala. 30; Knight v. State, 103 Ala ... 48; Burton v. State, 115 Ala. 1; Pate v ... State, 158 Ala. 1; Francis v. State, 188 Ala ... 39; South v. State, 86 Ala. 617; Pope v ... State, 183 Ala. 61; Jacobi v. State, 133 Ala ... 1; Matthews v. State, 96 Ala. 62; Vaughan v ... State, 58 Ark. 353; Poe v. State, 95 Ark. 172; ... Eyer v. State, 112 Ark. 37; Rogers v ... ...
  • Bush v. State
    • United States
    • Alabama Court of Appeals
    • April 3, 1923
    ...witness is dead, incapacitated to testify, or his presence cannot be obtained. Kirkland v. State, 141 Ala. 45, 37 So. 352; Pate v. State, 158 Ala. 1, 48 So. 388. It equally well settled that such testimony is not admissible to corroborate witnesses who testified on the trial. It is never pe......
  • McAdory v. State
    • United States
    • Alabama Court of Appeals
    • October 27, 1953
    ...laws of the state in which they serve. We will cite these cases without comment: Jackson v. State, 74 Ala. 26 (coroner); Pate v. State, 158 Ala. 1, 48 So. 388 (deputy sheriff); Spittorff v. State, 108 Ind. 171, 8 N.E. 911 (bailiff); O'Connor v. State, 9 Fla. 215 (coroner); State v. Adams, 2......
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