Ratteree v. The State Of Ga.

• Decision Date: 31 January 1875
• Citation: 53 Ga. 570
• Parties: James Ratteree, plaintiff in error. v. The State of Georgia,defendant in error.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

53 Ga. 570

James Ratteree, plaintiff in error. v. The State of Georgia, defendant in error.

Supreme Court of the State of Georgia

(Atlanta, January Term, 1875.)

Criminal Law. Jury. Evidence. Res gestae. Charge of Court. Before Judge Hopkins. Fulton Superior Court. October Term, 1874.

James Ratteree was placed on trial for the offense of murder, alleged to have been committed upon the person of W. L. Clifton on December 23d, 1873. The defendant pleaded not guilty.

Amongst the jurors put upon the defendant was one by the name of J. A. Barry. The name upon the list furnished to thedefendant was J. A. Berry. No such name appeared upon *the jury lists for the county, but he stated on oath that though his name was Barry, yet he was generally called Berry. When his name of Berry was called he answered to it. He was then sitting within ten feet of defendant. The court, on objection made, held him competent, and the defendant was thus compelled to challenge him peremptorily. To this ruling he excepted.

The evidence showed that the deceased and other friends, were going from the city of Atlanta to Fayette county in wagons. That when about one-half mile beyond West End he met the defendant, his two brothers, and a boy by the name of Silvey, coming in the direction of the city with a wagon drawn by oxen. That a controversy ensued, the details of which, in view of the decision, are immaterial here, in which the deceased was mortally stabbed by the defendant. That the deceased was placed in a wagon and carried about two hundred and fifty yards, when he said he could go no further, fainted and fell out of the wagon. That he was placed on the side of the road and rubbed with camphor. That the time that elapsed between the stabbing and the rubbing with the camphor was "a few minutes."

Under these facts the defendant proposed to prove by a witness by the name of Harbuck that when the deceased was being bathed with camphor, he said "if he died and went to hell it was his own fault; that the boys were not to blame." This evidence was excluded and the defendant excepted.

The evidence further showed that from the place above alluded to he was carried to the house of a Mr. R. W. Wood, where he remained about two weeks, during which time he had divers conversations with Wood, in all of which he expressed the belief that he would recover.

The defendant proposed to show by Wood that in one of these conversations the deceased had stated "that he did not want the boys hurt; that he was to blame; that the boy (defendant) was not to blame, that it was his own fault; that all he wanted was tocatch them out some time and give them a whipping." *This evidence was excluded and the defendant excepted.

The evidence further showed that the deceased died from the wounds received at the hands of the defendant.

Various requests were made to charge, all of which were covered by the general charge of the court.

The jury found the defendant guilty of voluntary manslaughter and recommended him to the mercy of the court.

A motion for a new trial was made, upon the ground that the court erred in ruling the juror, Barry, competent, in the above stated exclusions of the testimony of Harbuck and Wood, and upon other grounds not material here. The motion was overruled and the defendant excepted.

Gatrell & Stephens; A. W. Hammond; Wright & Hill, for plaintiff in error.

John T. Glenn, solicitor general, for the state.

Trippe, Judge.

1. Though the juror's name was spelled Barry he was generally called Berry. The name on the list furnished the defendant was the name by which the juror was generally known. Independent of the doctrine of idem sonans, it does not appear that the defendant could have been misled or...