Sanders v. State, 4 Div. 717
| Decision Date | 11 August 1953 |
| Docket Number | 4 Div. 717 |
| Citation | 67 So.2d 2,259 Ala. 520 |
| Parties | SANDERS v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Jack W. Wallace, Clayton, and Archie I. Grubb, Eufaula, for appellant.
Si Garrett, Atty. Gen., and Wm. H. Sanders, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
The appellant, Will Sanders, was tried before a jury in the Circuit Court of Barbour County, Alabama, under an indictment charging that he killed J. C. Williams, Jr., alias Junior Williams, unlawfully and with malice aforethought by shooting him with a pistol. The appellant was indicted jointly with another defendant, Dowling Green, but a motion for severance was granted and the defendant Sanders was put to trial first. The jury found the appellant guilty of murder in the second degree and fixed his sentence at twenty-five years in the State penitentiary. Defendant's motion for a new trial was denied. From the denial of said motion and from the verdict and sentence thereunder, appellant prosecuted this appeal.
Appellant's brief deals solely with alleged defects in the judgment entry as set out in the original record. This judgment entry was plainly defective. However, after appellant's brief had been filed, but prior to submission, the State's motion for a writ of certiorari to correct the judgment entry in the record was granted and the clerk of the Circuit Court of Barbour County thereupon sent up a correct copy of this judgment entry for insertion in the record.
On a night in January, 1952, the deceased, J. C. Williams, Jr., in company with his brother, Travis Williams, his uncle, Shelley Williams, and a brother-in-law, Oyed McClendon, went to the store of Dowling Green located near Louisville in Barbour County. Green was not there when they arrived. The men ordered beer and sat at the counter to drink it. After they had been there a few minutes, the defendant Will Sanders, who is the grandfather of Dowling Green's wife, came into the store, after having been sent for by his granddaughter, Mrs. Green. He went behind the counter in the store and engaged in amicable conversation with some of these men. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Green, the owner of the store, came in and went behind the counter. Shelley Williams called him to one end of the room and they talked with the counter separating them. Their conversation concerned some trouble which had occurred at the store two nights previously between Green and J. C. Williams, Sr., the father of the deceased Junior Williams, at which time Green had been forced to hit J. C. Williams with a club or black jack. While Shelley Williams and Dowling Green were talking at the counter, Junior Williams, the deceased, entered into the conversation and told Green that he (Green) was 'going to have to hit me with the same club you hit daddy with.'
At that point there was conflict in the testimony. The defendant and Dowling Green testified that Shelley Williams reached across the counter and grabbed Dowling Green by his overalls and that Travis Williams threw a bottle at Dowling Green, which shattered against the wall above his head. This was denied by Travis Williams. At that time both Dowling Green and the defendant began shooting,...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Sanders v. State, 6 Div. 130
...the duty of this court to 'consider all questions apparent on the record' and to 'render such judgment as the law demands.' Sanders v. State, 259 Ala. 520, 67 So.2d 2. If the question reserved is of substance and might have affected the result, it is of no importance that the appellant or h......
-
Green v. State
...was convicted of murder in the second degree and was sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary for twenty-five years. Sanders v. State, 259 Ala. 520, 67 So.2d 2. Appellant's trial resulted in a conviction for the offense of manslaughter in the first degree and his punishment was fixed a......