Patterson v. State, 7 Div. 583.

Decision Date18 February 1930
Docket Number7 Div. 583.
Citation126 So. 420,23 Ala.App. 428
PartiesPATTERSON v. STATE.
CourtAlabama Court of Appeals

Appeal from Circuit Court, Clay County; E. P. Gay, Judge.

Wallace Patterson was convicted of assault with intent to murder, and he appeals.

Reversed and remanded.

A. L Crumpton and C. W. McKay, both of Ashland, for appellant.

Charlie C. McCall, Atty. Gen., for the State.

SAMFORD J.

The charge in this case was assault to murder. The plea was not guilty, which embraces the plea of self-defense. It will not be necessary to set out the evidence or to comment on the conclusions to be drawn therefrom further than to say that the testimony for the state tended to prove a malicious assault, and that for the defendant tended to prove that he fired in self-defense. The evidence on every material inquiry was in sharp conflict, making each a question to be determined by the jury. So that in the beginning we may eliminate specific consideration of all charges calling for affirmative instructions.

During the cross-examination of defendant while being examined as a witness the court permitted the state, over objections and exceptions seasonably made, to prove that some time after the difficulty, and about one and three-quarter miles from the scene, the defendant bought a pint of whisky from a negro and drank it. This testimony was brought out before the jury through a grilling cross-examination by state's counsel covering two pages of the transcript, the answers to questions being given with apparent reluctance by defendant after his objections had been overruled by the court. The method and manner of the examination, and the embarrassment of the witness incident thereto in the presence of the jury was of more real injury than the facts testified to. After the evidence was closed counsel for the state requested the court to exclude this evidence from the jury, which the court did in the following language:

"The court: Gentlemen, that part of the testimony where it is shown that the defendant bought the whisky and drunk it after the shooting, and after he got away from the place of the shooting, that part is excluded and you are not to take that under consideration at all in your deliberation, that is not evidence in this case, that he got the liquor from a negro and drunk it after the shooting is not to be considered by you as evidence."

Thereupon defendant moved for a mistrial stating appropriate grounds. The entire examination of defendant on this question was illegal, irrelevant, and immaterial, and every ruling of the court requiring answers touching the buying of whisky from a negro and drinking it on the road or elsewhere, after the difficulty, and not a part of the res gestæ, was error to a reversal. Goodman v. State, 20 Ala. App. 392, 102 So. 486, and authorities there cited. Indeed counsel for the state recognized this to say the least, immediately after the closing of the testimony, and, seeking to avoid the manifest error and injury, moved for the exclusion of the evidence. This method of conducting trials has been frequently criticized and condemned by this court and the Supreme Court, and while it is always with reluctance that such criticism is made, where it appears that the error is of such nature as that its only effect could be to prejudice the defendant before the jury, it is doubtful if the poison is ever extracted or the error so cured as not to seriously injure the defendant before the jury. The state's counsel should have known, if he did not, that the evidence was illegal at the time they were insisting upon its admission over the strenuous objection of defendant, and the court should have stopped it then. The ends of justice demand that we hold that defendant's motion for a mistrial should have been granted. Booth v. State, 22 Ala. App. 508, 117 So. 492; Maryland Cas. Co. v. McCallum, 200 Ala. 154, 75 So. 902; Davis v. State, 18 Ala. App. 482, 93 So. 269; Watson v. Adams, 187 Ala. 490, 65 So. 528, Ann. Cas. 1916E, 565.

In his oral charge the...

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13 cases
  • White v. State
    • United States
    • Alabama Court of Appeals
    • August 4, 1931
    ...136 So. 420 24 Ala.App. 442 WHITE v. STATE. 7 Div. 758.Court of Appeals of AlabamaAugust 4, 1931 ... Appeal ... What this court ... has had to say on this point in Patterson v. State, ... 23 Ala. App. 428, 126 So. 420; Booth v. State, 22 ... Ala ... ...
  • Mason v. State, 8 Div. 251
    • United States
    • Alabama Court of Appeals
    • March 31, 1953
    ...pertinent to this material inquiry. Apparently the ruling of the court comes under the influence of these authorities. Patterson v. State, 23 Ala.App. 428, 126 So. 420; Hanson v. State, 34 Ala.App. 177, 37 So.2d The State in rebuttal was allowed to introduce evidence from witnesses who test......
  • Buckner v. State
    • United States
    • Alabama Court of Appeals
    • March 7, 1933
    ...146 So. 624 25 Ala.App. 361 BUCKNER v. STATE. 7 Div. 972.Court of Appeals of AlabamaMarch 7, 1933 ... Appeal ... Davis v ... State, 18 Ala. App. 482, 93 So. 269; Patterson v ... State, 23 Ala. App. 428, 126 So. 420; Stephens v ... State, 17 ... ...
  • Mooneyham v. State
    • United States
    • Alabama Court of Appeals
    • February 20, 1951
    ...Ala.App. 44 So.2d 775; Sampson v. State, 19 Ala.App. 671, 100 So. 305; Hanson v. State, 34 Ala.App. 177, 37 So.2d 532; Patterson v. State, 23 Ala.App. 428, 126 So. 420. We are not unmindful of the line of authorities which hold that it is error to permit in evidence bloody garments which ar......
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