State v. Dornberg

Decision Date24 February 1940
Docket Number15025.
Citation7 S.E.2d 467,192 S.C. 513
PartiesSTATE v. DORNBERG.
CourtSouth Carolina Supreme Court

W H. Nicholson, W. R. Dunn, and T. F. McCord, all of Greenwood for appellant.

Hugh Beasley, Sol., of Greenwood, for respondent.

BONHAM Chief Justice.

The appellant, Charles P. Dornberg, Jr., was charged with murder the victim being his brother, John Dornberg. He was tried on this charge, before Judge Grimball and a jury, at Greenwood and convicted of manslaughter.

The evidence against him is almost wholly circumstantial. There is some proof of a note stating where the body of the deceased could be found, which the State charged was written by the accused and put in a mail box. The proof upon which the State relies in this particular is the testimony of men who compared the writing on the note with the admitted writing of Charles P. Dornberg, Jr., and point out instances of alleged resemblances. We have considered this evidence along with all the other, and have arrived at the conclusion that it does not measure up to the standard established by the law in the recent case of State v. Kimbrell, 191 S.C. 238, 4 S.E.2d 121, 122. There it is said: "Where it is undertaken by the prosecution in a criminal case to prove the guilt of the accused by circumstantial evidence, not only must the circumstances be proven, but they must point conclusively--that is, to a moral certainty--to the guilt of the accused; they must be wholly and in every particular perfectly consistent with each other, and they must further be absolutely inconsistent with any other reasonable...

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1 books & journal articles
  • B. Self-defense
    • United States
    • The Criminal Law of South Carolina (SCBar) Chapter VI Defenses
    • Invalid date
    ...judge has doubt as to whether he should submit the case to the jury, he should direct a verdict for the defendant. State v. Dornberg, 192 S.C. 513, 7 S.E.2d 467 (1940). 3. Deadly Force or Non-Deadly Force: Important Distinctions The defense of self-defense is much less readily available whe......

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