Scott v. State
Citation | 247 Ala. 62,22 So.2d 529 |
Decision Date | 07 June 1945 |
Docket Number | 4 Div. 371. |
Parties | SCOTT v. STATE. |
Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
W R. Martin, of Ozark, for appellant.
Wm N. McQueen, Acting Atty. Gen., and John O. Harris, Asst Atty. Gen., for the State.
Defendant was convicted in the Circuit Court of Dale County of robbery and from a sentence of death brings this appeal. The appeal comes to us under the automatic appeal act, approved June 24, 1943. General Acts of 1943 page 217, Code 1940, Tit. 15, § 382(1) et seq.
The defendant did not testify in his own behalf, nor did he offer any evidence in defense of the crime charged in the indictment.
The undisputed testimony revealed the following: Mrs. Bessie Hatcher owned and operated a general mercantile business in the town of Pinckard, Dale County, Alabama. She kept no clerk. About eight o'clock in the morning of August 18, 1944, Mrs. Hatcher was alone in her place of business when the defendant, a negro soldier, came in and asked to see a regulation (army) suit. Mrs. Hatcher told him that she did not have the trousers, but did have a shirt. Defendant looked at the shirt, but did not buy, and went out of the store. On each side of the store front door there was a large glass window. After the defendant left the store, Mrs. Hatcher took some money from her purse and put it in the cash register, and put the purse containing approximately $2,700 under the counter near the cash register. Defendant came back in the store and told Mrs. Hatcher he believed he would take the shirt, and as she turned to get it defendant struck her on the head with an iron rod about eighteen inches long, knocked her down, took her purse from under the counter, and left the store. Shortly thereafter, defendant was arrested about one mile from Pinckard, placed in an automobile and brought back to Pinckard. A search of his person produced $2,711 in currency of the United States of America, which was identified by Mrs. Hatcher as her property. After proper predicate, and without objection, defendant's complete confession was introduced in evidence.
The indictment is in due and legal form, and is sufficient to charge the defendant with the offense of robbery.
Defendant interposed a special plea in which objection was made to the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court of Dale County, Alabama, on the ground that he was a member of the armed forces of the United States in time of war, and, therefore, the civil authorities were without jurisdiction over his person to try him for an offense against the laws of the State of Alabama.
As there was no demand by the military authorities for the surrender of the accused, what would have been the effect of such a demand, if made, is not before us. Defendant's argument seems to rest upon the broad assumption that the Articles of War, Articles 93, 74, 10 U.S.C.A. §§ 1565 and 1546, vest in the military courts during a state of war exclusive jurisdiction to try and punish persons in the military service for offenses committed by them, which are violative of the law of the several states.
Section 1565, supra, provides: 'Any person subject to military law who commits manslaughter, mayhem, arson, burglary, housebreaking, robbery, larceny, embezzlement, perjury, forgery, sodomy, assault with intent to commit any felony, assault with intent to do bodily harm with a dangerous weapon, instrument, or other thing, or assault with intent to do bodily harm, shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.'
Under this section the offense charged against defendant was within the jurisdiction of the military courts, but there is nothing in said section suggesting that the jurisdiction there conferred is exclusive. On the other hand, section 1546, supra, makes mandatory provision for the delivery of military subjects to the civil authorities for trial for offenses within the jurisdiction of the civil courts. The section reads as follows:
'When under the provisions of this article, delivery is made to the civil authorities of an offender undergoing sentence of a court-martial, such delivery, if followed by conviction, shall be...
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