Pickett v. State

• Decision Date: 04 October 1909
• Citation: 121 S.W. 732
• Parties: PICKETT et al. v. STATE.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

121 S.W. 732

PICKETT et al. v. STATE.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

October 4, 1909.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Union County; George W. Hays, Judge.

Henry Pickett and another were convicted of murder in the second degree, and they appeal. Reversed, and remanded for new trial.

Thornton & Thornton, for appellants. Hal L. Norwood, Atty. Gen., and C. A. Cunningham, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

HART, J.

The appellants, Henry Pickett and Wilson Pickett, were indicted in the Calhoun circuit court for murder in the first degree, committed by killing Charles Abbott, and on change of venue to Union county they were tried and convicted of murder in the second degree. Their sentence was fixed at a period of 21 years in the state penitentiary. An appeal has been duly prosecuted to this court.

The evidence on the part of the state is correctly abstracted by the Attorney General as follows: On the 8th day of December, 1908, Henry Pickett went to the store of Bunk Abbott, and told him that he had a bale of cotton at the gin for him. Bunk Abbott told Henry Pickett that it was all right; that he would go down there and get the cotton, and Abbott asked Pickett what did he do with the seed, and when Pickett replied that the seed were at the house, Abbott told him that he owed him the cotton and the seed, and that it would not pay his account. Bunk Abbott told his brother, the deceased, Charlie Abbott, to go down and tag the cotton. Henry Pickett, Charlie Abbott, and Wilson Pickett, a brother of Henry Pickett, left the store together. Bunk Abbott knew the reputation of the two negroes, and when he saw Wilson Pickett leave with them, he went down to where they were to load the cotton. After the cotton was loaded, the two Pickett negroes went to the house. In a very short time a conversation took place between Henry Pickett, who was sitting at the time on the porch at his house, and Bunk Abbott, who was at or near the gate. According to the testimony of Bunk Abbott and Hard Green, a negro boy who was there at the time Bunk Abbott told Henry Pickett to go down and unload the cotton, Henry said he was not going. Bunk told him they would have to have a settlement. He told Bunk to go off, that he did not want to talk with a drunk man. Bunk asked him if he thought he was drunk, and he told him that he had his account, and put his hand in his pocket to get the account. Henry replied, "To hell with you," and immediately stepped into the house and came back and commenced shooting. Bunk and Charlie Abbott then approached the house, and also began firing. Hard Green saw Wilson Pickett in the house during the shooting, and Ira Newton, who was about 100 yards away, testified that he saw "the darkey" at the corner of the room at the "L" of the house run into the house immediately after he had heard some shots. A little bit later Newton saw both negroes come from around the house. One was carrying a single-barreled shotgun, and the other a rifle. As they passed Newton, they were asked if any one got hurt. Henry said that he was shot in the leg, and Wilson said they come and got our cotton. The negroes fled the country, and were finally captured at Monroe, La. Bunk Abbott was shot in the arm and in the chin. The shot struck the back of his arm near the wrist bone, and came out on the inside of his arm near the elbow. Charlie Abbott was shot in the left arm, and a load of squirrel shot penetrated his breast over the heart. There were 44 squirrel shot holes in his breast covering a space of about six inches.

The circumstances in regard to the killing as testified to by the defendant Henry Pickett is as follows: "I am one of the defendants. We had been to town that day, and did not have any dinner, and I was hungry, and I went in the kitchen and asked my wife how near supper was ready, and she replied that it would be ready in a few moments, and I went back and sat down on the porch, and Mr. Abbott says, `Henry, come out here and get in this wagon and go back to town with me.' I said, `Mr. Abbot, you have plenty of help without me.' He says: `Damn that; this is your cotton, and I want you to go back to town and unload it.' I started to tell him something, and he said again, `Come out here.' I started to go out there, and then concluded I had better stay where I was, and said to him that I had better stay where I was, as he did not look right. He says, `You damn son of a bitch, come out of there,' and I told him I was not coming, and he said, `If you don't come out of there, I am coming in there.' He said, `You may think I have no right to come in there, but I will show you.' I said, `I have got nothing to say about that.' He then pulled his gun out and started in. He got about halfway between the gate and the doorsteps where I was sitting. I was still sitting there, and he had the gun in his hand. I did not think he was going to shoot me, and I just stayed there. I stayed there until he stepped up to me, and when he gets up to me, he says `B____ G____, you get up and come out of here.' I set there just a second, and then I gets up and whirls right quick in the house. He then shoots at me three or four times, maybe five, and then he started in the house. Mr. Bunk was running in this way shooting, and Mr. Charlie was shooting this way [indicating]. My children and my wife were scared nearly to death. My children was running around after me hollering and screaming. And they were just shooting every way. My wife had been cleaning up and scrubbing that day. I ran to the corner where I generally kept my gun, and I did not find it, and I ran to the bed and found my gun where they had...