Stafford v. The State Of Ga.

• Decision Date: 31 January 1876
• Citation: 55 Ga. 592
• Parties: Jacob Stafford, plaintiff in error. v. The State of Georgia,defendant in error.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

55 Ga. 592

Jacob Stafford, plaintiff in error. v. The State of Georgia, defendant in error.

Supreme Court of the State of Georgia

(Atlanta, January Term, 1876.)

Criminal law. Evidence. Jury. Verdict. Confessions. Witness. Charge of Court. Before Judge Hopkins. Fulton Superior Court. April Term, 1875.

Reported in the decision.

R. S. Jeffries; H. C. Glenn, for plaintiff in error.

John T. Glenn, solicitor general; Hoke Smith, for the state.

Warner, Chief Justice.

The defendant was indicted with John Purifoy for the offense of murder, and charged with the unlawful killing of John Casey, in the county of Fulton. On the trial of the defendant, the jury, under the charge of the court, found him guilty, and recommended him to the mercy of the court. The defendant made a motion for a new trial on the several grounds set forth therein, which was overruled by the court, and the defendant excepted.

The defendants were tried separately, and both found guilty, but the court granted a new trial in the case of Stafford, and at the same term of the court, Stafford was again put on his trial, and it is the proceedings had on the last trial that we are now called on to review.

It appears from the evidence in the record that the deceased kept a grocery store in the basement story of the house in *which he and his family resided, on Mitchell street, one of the public streets in the city of Atlanta; that on the night of the 26th of January, 1875, about nine o'clock, two colored men came there and inquired for some whisky to drink; they passed through the room where Mrs. Casey, the wife of the deceased was sitting, and went down into the store-room, the deceased going with them. Shortly after they went down there, Mrs. Casey heard a noise in the room below, and one of the parties who went down with the deceased came up, and hurriedly ran off through the house where Mrs. Casey was, who then went to the top of the steps and looked down into the basement room, and saw Purifoy have her husband by the throat; when she gave the alarm he ran off; found the deceased lying on the floor, his throat cut, and bleeding profusely; appeared to have received two or three blows on the head; knew Purifoy and identified him, but did not know who the other man was, and could not identify him, and did not do so, either then or at the trial; no one lived in the house besides the deceased and his wife and their two children, who, at the time of the occurrence, were in bed upstairs. The deceased lived four days after the wounds were inflicted. Purifoy and the defendant were arrested and brought into the presence of the deceased before he died, who recognized Purifoy as one of the men who went into the basement store with him that night, but did not recognize the defendant, Stafford. When asked if he recognized the defendant, Stafford, as one who went into the basement store with him, he said he did not know him. John Horsham, a witness for the state, testified that a week or ten days before Casey was killed, defendant said to him: "Did not I want to make some money?" I said, "yes; where is it?" He said, "out on the edge of town, where an old man and woman lived together, and had money piled up; me and Jerry Barracks, and Henry Humphreys, want to make a raise, and we would like you to go along;" told him "I would go, andsaid, when will you go?" He said, "to-morrow night." I said, "where will you meet?" *He said, "at Henry Humphrey\'s, up-stairs, over the drug store, at eight o\'clock. I did not meet him."

This evidence was objected to by the defendant and its admission by the court is one of the errors assigned.

Patent Ridgely, a witness sworn for the state, stated that he was a printer by profession; that he was put in jail for stealing some birds, and while in jail with the defendant, he testified to certain confessions made by the defendant to him, to-wit: that he and Purifoy went to get the money, defendant said there was a soap box, or a candle box, full of greenbacks behind the counter in the store, and that he and Purifoy went there to get it; that they had gone from the corner of Hunter and Pryor streets and met there, etc. When asked how defendant came to talk to him about it, said that defendant came to him to get advice in his case, and wanted witness to help him out, and he did advise him the best way he knew, read the bible to him, and psalms, told him he thought he had better confess and seek his God, told him if he had confessed, to stand to it by God, or God damn it; don't profess to be a religious man. On his cross-examination the witness was asked, "when he came and asked you what to do, did you not tell him it would be better for him to acknowledge it?" To which he replied: "I said if he was guilty of it. it would be better for him to acknowledge it; that is what I said."

The defendant then moved the court to rule out all the testimony of this witness in relation to the defendant's confessions, which motion was overruled by the court, and this is assigned as error.

John Purifoy, the accomplice, was introduced as a witness on the part of the state, who testified that he was to be hung day after to-morrow; that defendant and himself made a plot, he, the witness, to kill Mr. Casey, and defendant to go back into the house and kill Mrs. Casey, and then get the money; defendant was there; first mentioned it to witness two or three nights before; they went to Casey the night before the killing, put an axe in pawn for whisky; done nothing that night; defendant came to Henry Banks\' for him the next night, to *go again, and the thing was done. Witness knocked Casey down and cut his throat; defendant did not do it. On cross-examination the witness was asked, "Did you not testify a few days ago against Jake Stafford?" "Yes sir." "Did you not swear on the bible to tell the truth then?" "Yes sir." "On that trial, when this knife was held up to you, did you not say it was not your knife?" "Yes, I did." "When you wereasked who cut Mr. Casey\'s throat, did you not say that Jake Stafford did it?" "Yes." "When you were asked who knocked him on the head, did you not say that Jake Stafford did it?" "Yes." "When you were asked what it was done with, did you not say with this iron?" "I reckon before, I said...