State v. Rodgers
| Decision Date | 10 February 1915 |
| Docket Number | 8997. |
| Citation | 84 S.E. 304,100 S.C. 77 |
| Parties | STATE v. RODGERS. |
| Court | South Carolina Supreme Court |
Appeal from General Sessions Circuit Court of Laurens County; T. S Sease, Judge.
"To be officially reported."
The exceptions were as follows:
(1) That his honor erred in not submitting the plea of former jeopardy to the jury, it being a question of fact for the jury and not for the court.
(2) That his honor erred in not holding that the arson was a contributory cause of the death of George F. Young.
(3) That his honor erred in overruling the motion of the defendant's attorney in arrest of judgment, as the arson was one of the contributing causes of the death of George F. Young, and the prisoner had already been tried and convicted of murder and recommended to the mercy of the court.
(4) That his honor erred in sentencing the prisoner to the electric chair on the 23d day of October, said execution to take place while the prisoner was serving a life sentence for a crime of which the arson was but a part.
(5) That his honor erred in holding that the court was able to abrogate and set aside the sentence of the former court which the prisoner was then serving and substitute a new sentence which sentence was to be imposed before the first sentence was fully served.
(6) That his honor erred in holding that the state can prefer on the same facts a series of charges.
(7) That his honor erred in not holding the conviction of murder on the same testimony and facts as used at the trial for arson to be a bar to the charge of arson.
(8) That his honor erred in overruling the motion in arrest of judgment.
Augustus G. Hart, of Laurens, for appellant.
R. A Cooper, Sol., of Laurens, for the State.
This is an appeal from the sentence of death imposed upon the appellant, for arson.
The facts are thus stated in the record: The appellant, Greenwood Rodgers, was jointly indicted, with Tom Young and Junk Caldwell, for the murder of George F. Young, on the 12th day of January, 1914, spring term of the court of general sessions for Laurens county. Greenwood Rodgers and Junk Caldwell were tried separately, and each convicted of murder with recommendation to the mercy of the court, and each was duly sentenced to imprisonment at hard labor for the term of his natural life. The indictment was in the usual form, charging killing of George F. Young with a pistol and axe. At the 1914 fall term of the court of general sessions for Laurens county, Greenwood Rodgers was indicted for the crime of arson, on which indictment he was convicted and duly sentenced to be electrocuted, the 23d day of October 1914. The indictment charged that the defendant aforesaid did feloniously, willfully, and maliciously set fire to a certain house, to wit, the dwelling house of one George F. Young, and by the kindling of such fire the aforesaid dwelling house was then and there feloniously, willfully, and maliciously burned and consumed. The appellant's attorney entered a plea of former jeopardy before the jury was sworn, which plea was resisted by the solicitor, who denied identity of the offenses, and the said plea was overruled by the court. The Judge's charge was that usually given in arson cases.
After conviction, the attorney of the appellant made a motion for an arrest of judgment, on the following grounds: (1) Autrefois convict (former jeopardy). (2) That the same facts and testimony were used in the previous trial, when he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, the jury having recommended him to the mercy of the court. (3) That, out of the same facts, a series of charges shall not be preferred. (4) That the facts brought out in the trial would have warranted a conviction on the first trial, and did sustain a conviction on the first trial; therefore the conviction for murder at the first trial, on the same facts as brought out at the trial for arson, is a bar to sentencing the defendant for arson.
The defendant offers in evidence to sustain the above plea, the testimony and judgment in the trial for murder, and the testimony in the trial for arson, and also the records of the court in the entire matter. And the questions were raised as to the court's right to interfere with the first sentence, while the prisoner was serving said sentence; also, the right of the court to sentence the prisoner to the electric chair for an offense committed, prior to trial for a felony, on which trial he was convicted; and that, even if the court had the right to sentence prisoner, said sentence could not be put into effect, until first sentence which prisoner was then serving, had been served. The question was also raised that the arson was a contributory cause of the death of George F. Young. The motions were overruled by the court.
The state's testimony tended to show that Greenwood Rodgers Junk Caldwell, and Tom Young, on the night of January 12, 1914, went to the house of George F. Young in Laurens county, where they found him reading a paper before the fire. They walked up to the back of his...
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