Pruitt v. State

Decision Date12 February 1918
Docket Number6 Div. 394
Citation77 So. 916,16 Ala.App. 322
PartiesPRUITT v. STATE.
CourtAlabama Court of Appeals

Appeal from Circuit Court, Jefferson County; H.P. Heflin, Judge.

Mary Pruitt was indicted for murder, and was convicted of manslaughter in the first degree, and she appeals. Affirmed.

J.B. Aird, of Birmingham, for appellant.

F. Loyd Tate, Atty. Gen., and Emmett S. Thigpen, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

SAMFORD, J.

The only exceptions reserved on the trial were to the court's rulings on the evidence, and appellant's counsel, while contending that the court erred, furnishes no authority sustaining his argument.

The state, after showing that the defendant went to a home where her husband was, called him out and shot him several times with a pistol, asked the witness, "What was she saying after she shot?" This question was perfectly proper, and if the answer was illegal, the defendant made no motion to exclude it. Miller v. State, 74 So. 840.

The defendant's counsel asked the witness the following question: "Ida Lee Brewer was a woman of bad character?" to which objection was sustained. The character of Ida Lee Brewer was not in issue, nor was her character either material or relevant to any issue in the case. The fact that Ida Lee was a bad woman and deceased was in her company would not give the defendant the right to kill him, even though he was her husband.

It was perfectly proper for the state to prove that the defendant followed deceased after the shooting and attempted to again shoot deceased before he died, as tending to prove malice; it also being a part of the res gestae.

The question as to where deceased lived before his marriage to defendant, which took place three years before the killing, was immaterial, and the court did not err in excluding it.

It being shown that the defendant went to another house, some distance from her home, with a pistol, looking for her husband, the question of how deceased treated defendant during their married life while they were living together was not relevant, nor was it relevant to show that on a former occasion deceased had tried to shoot her.

There is no error in the record, and the judgment is affirmed.

Affirmed.

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2 cases
  • Alberson v. State, 4 Div. 542
    • United States
    • Alabama Supreme Court
    • May 11, 1950
    ...State, 141 Ala. 20, 37 So. 488; Grissett v. State, 241 Ala. 343, 2 So.2d 399; Eaton v. State, 8 Ala.App. 136, 63 So. 41; Pruitt v. State, 16 Ala.App. 322, 77 So. 916; Jones v. State, 181 Ala. 63, 61 So. Appellant's third insistence for reversal is based upon the sustaining of the State's ob......
  • Dillard v. State, 4 Div. 148
    • United States
    • Alabama Court of Appeals
    • February 4, 1936
    ... ... defendant had the gun in her hands at the time the fatal shot ... was fired. There were no eyewitnesses to the killing and the ... above-stated fact was ascertained from the confession of the ... defendant, which was obtained from her by one Dr. Pruitt, who ... appeared to be the principal witness for the state. There ... were other witnesses who also testified as to a confession of ... the defendant ... Dr ... Pruitt testified that he went to the home of this appellant, ... saw and examined the wounded man in a back room of the ... ...

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