Rains v. State
Decision Date | 28 January 1890 |
Citation | 7 So. 315,88 Ala. 91 |
Parties | RAINS v. STATE. |
Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Appeal from circuit court, Morgan county; JOHN MOORE, Judge.
Robert J. Rains was convicted of the murder of his brother, Bone Rains, and sentenced to be hanged. Before trial, defendant applied for a change of venue on the ground that he could not get a fair and impartial trial in the county. In his application he stated that when he was arrested, and his arrest became known, a mob was formed to take him from the custody of the deputy-sheriff, and hang him, and the officer avoided the mob by traveling another route. J. M. Echols, the deputy-sheriff by whom defendant was arrested, being examined in his behalf, testified that he never heard of any mob, and that he traveled with his prisoner on the usual mail route that he had heard "right smart talk about the killing but no more than there is generally over any killing; never heard anybody say that defendant ought to be hung, or ought to have his neck broken, but the people generally believed that he killed his brother, and have heard people say that if he did kill his brother he ought to abide the consequences of the law." W. J. Owens, another witness for defendant testified: The affidavits of M. H McCullom and W. C. Cornelius were also submitted, but whether for or against the application the record does not show. The court overruled the application, and defendant duly excepted.
It appeared on the trial that the dead body of deceased was found in or near the public road, about five miles from Hartselle, early in the morning, one day in January, 1889 and near by were found a pair of gloves, and a nubia or wrap, which were identified as belonging to defendant. It was shown, also, that, on the preceding day, defendant, deceased, J. L. Alexander, and several other persons, were in Somerville, in attendance on the county court, where a suit or criminal prosecution was pending against Alexander for slanderous words alleged to have been spoken by him about defendant's daughter; the affidavit on which the suit or prosecution was founded having been made by the deceased. The case was not tried, and the parties in attendance started for home in the afternoon; defendant and his brother, with J. D. Sims, being on horseback, and the others in Alexander's wagon. They all stopped at Hartselle about dusk, and ate some crackers and oysters, for which Alexander paid; and Alexander further testified that, "having made friends with Bone," the deceased, he lent him 25 cents with which to buy a pint of whisky. The parties separated at the fork of the roads, several miles beyond Hartselle; defendant, deceased, and Sims going to the right, while the others took the left road. Sims further testified, on the part of the prosecution: separating from the others as stated above. ' On cross-examination, the witness admitted that he had said to several persons named that he knew nothing at all about it, and said this was before the defendant was put in jail, and that he said so because he was afraid defendant would kill him, as he had said he would. Defendant's counsel then asked him: "Is what you say about that as true as everything else you have testified in this case?" The court sustained an objection to this question, and the defendant excepted.
After two witnesses for the prosecution had testified as to the finding of the body, and before the examination of Sims or Alexander, J. H. Kitchen was introduced as a witness for the state, and thus testified: Defendant moved to exclude from the jury what the witness said "about the trial in the county court, because it was irrelevant," and excepted to the overruling of this motion. W. R. Crow, another witness for the state, testified that, "within twelve months before Bone Rains was killed, defendant told him that Bone had knocked him down and thought he had killed him; that he intended to do Bone just as Bone had thought he had done him, if it took him twenty years, or a life-time; and that he intended to do it when Bone was not expecting it." Arch Johnson, another witness for the state, testified that, "in the spring of 1888, defendant told him that bone had knocked him in the head with a single-tree, and then went to the woods with his gun, and stayed there three days; that the next time Bone offended him, or made him mad, he would kill him in the woods, or out of the woods, if it took him twenty years to do it." Defendant objected to the admission of this part of the testimony of each of the witnesses "on the ground that it was too remote, and was incompetent;" but the court overruled his objection, allowed the same to go to the jury, and defendant excepted.
Defendant testified in his own behalf, and said: He was then asked, on cross-examination, "What were the words you and your brother had about your daughter?" and answered that he did not remember. The solicitor then asked him "If his brother said anything, or slandered his daughter," and he answered that he did not. Defendant objected to both the last question and the answer "because it was illegal and irrelevant," but the court overruled his objection, and he duly excepted. The defendant was further asked, on cross-examination, "where he was each day and night from the Monday night until he was arrested," and the court allowed this question, and the answer thereto, against the objection and exception of defendant.
The court charged the jury "that, to warrant an acquittal on the ground of self-defense, ...
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