Slaughter v. State

Decision Date09 March 1959
Docket NumberNo. 2,No. 37575,37575,2
Citation108 S.E.2d 161,99 Ga.App. 239
PartiesSLAUGHTER v. STATE
CourtGeorgia Court of Appeals

Syllabus by the Court

1. (a) The indictment for bribery in this case, being substantially in the language of Code, § 26-4102, was not subject to demurrer on the ground that it was duplicitous, or that it set out no offense against the laws of this State.

(b) Nor was the indictment subject to demurrer because showing on its face that the defendant had been entrapped into committing the crime of bribery. An entrapment does not exist merely because an officer of the law furnishes another an opportunity to commit an offense which he is ready and willing to commit. Usry v. State, 90 Ga.App. 644, 83 S.E.2d 843.

2. The testimony of the arresting officers was sufficient to authorize a finding that the defendant had given money to each of them as a bribe for the purpose of inducing them not to arrest her for an offense of possessing illegal liquor committed in their presence. The motion in arrest of judgment and the general grounds of the motion for new trial are without merit.

3. (a) Testimony of an arresting officer to the effect that he was offered money to refrain from arresting the defendant, and that he accepted such money to procure evidence against her and then arrested her for the offense of bribery, is not subject to be stricken on motion made by defense counsel for the stated reason that no criminal intent was shown on the part of such officer.

(b) In any event, the testimony of an accomplice may be corroborated by the testimony of another accomplice. Crowe v. State, 83 Ga.App. 325, 63 S.E.2d 682.

Annie W. Slaughter was indicted in the Superior Court of Bibb County for the offense of bribery, the indictment charging that she did 'give and offer to give to J. W. Elder, a Bibb County Deputy Sheriff, T. A. Smith and A. F. Jones, Bibb County policemen, and officers of this State, $15.00 * * * to influence the behavior of the said J. W. Elder, a Bibb County Deputy Sheriff, T. A. Smith, and A. F. Jones, Bibb County policemen and officers of this State, in that the said accused did pay to the said officers the aforesaid sum of money for the purpose of preventing the said officers from arresting and prosecuting the said accused for violation of the laws of the State of Georgia with reference to the possession and handling of non-tax-paid whisky, rum and gin within the city of Macon, Georgia.' The defendant demurred generally to the indictment on the ground that it set out no offense, and specially on the ground of duplicity, which demurrers were overruled. The case proceeded to trial, and the evidence on behalf of the State showed substantially the following: the three officers named in the indictment came to the defendant's house armed with a search warrant and demanded entry. The defendant attempted to lock the doors from the inside, but two of the officers entered from the front; one of them opened the back door to the third officer, and the other followed the defendant, who ran through the living room and kitchen to the bathroom where she proceeded to dump a pail of liquid into a bathtub of soapy water; that some of the liquid spilled on the floor, was mopped up, and was, in the opinion of the officers, moonshine whisky; that the bathtub water also smelled of whisky. The three officers also testified in substance that the defendant asked Jones how much it would take to turn her loose; that he called the other two men in; that she asked them all and they did not answer, that she then took a bill fold and handed Jones a $5.00 bill and each of the others five $1 bills, and told them if they came back the following Saturday they would each get $5 more. The officers took the bills of currency totaling the sum of $15, which were introduced in evidence, and the officers immediately arrested the defendant for the offense of bribery as well as the offense of possessing illegal liquor.

The trial of the bribery case resulted in a verdict of guilty. The defendant filed a motion for a new trial which was amended by the addition of 7 special grounds, and also a motion in arrest of judgment. The denial of these motions and the overruling of the demurrers to the indictment are here assigned as error.

D. Lee Churchwell, Macon, for plaintiff in error.

Wm. M. West, Sol.-Gen., Hal Bell, Asst. Sol.-Gen., Macon, for defendant in error.

TOWNSEND, Judge.

1-2. The main contention of the plaintiff in error, as raised by the demurrers to the indictment, the motion for new trial, and also the motion in arrest of judgment is, in substance, that the substantive offense of bribery, a felony, cannot be consummated singularly but must be the result of at least two participating offenders, the giver and the receiver of the bribe; that in such event both giver and receiver are accomplices and the bribe-giver cannot be convicted only upon the uncorroborated testimony of such accomplices; that a charge of offering to bribe is not a charge of committing the offense of bribery but only a charge of an attempt to commit such offense; that if the officers, as they testified, did not accept the money for the purpose of entering into an illegal compact with the defendant to conceal her crime, but rather accepted the money for the purpose of obtaining evidence against her without...

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