State v. Simmons
| Decision Date | 25 June 1946 |
| Docket Number | 15854. |
| Citation | 38 S.E.2d 705,208 S.C. 538 |
| Parties | STATE v. SIMMONS. |
| Court | South Carolina Supreme Court |
I. A. Smoak, of Walterboro, for appellant.
Julian S. Wolfe, of Orangeburg, and J. D. Parler, of St. George, for respondent.
The appellant was tried at a special term of the Court of General Sessions for Dorchester County on an indictment charging him with the murder of Rush Knight. Upon his arraignment, he entered or there was entered for him, in addition to his plea of not guilty generally, the plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. The trial resulted in a verdict of guilty, and the trial Judge sentenced the appellant in accord with the penalty provided by Statute. From such conviction and sentence the appellant has appealed upon the exceptions following:
'1. The Court erred in not granting a directed verdict of not guilty because the testimony proved conclusively that the defendant had the mind of a seven year old child.
'2. The Court erred in allowing the witness, Dr. McLendon, to bring out new matter in his reply testimony over the objection of counsel for the defendant.
The theory of the State was that the motive of the appellant in striking the blow that resulted in the death of Knight was robbery, but the defense was that the blow was struck in sudden heat of passion upon sufficient legal provocation, but with no intent of doing any serious bodily harm.
The appellant and the deceased lived in the same general community, the appellant being nineteen years of age, and the deceased much older variously estimated at from twenty-seven to thirty-five or more years.
On the afternoon of the killing, the appellant and the deceased had been together at a country store where they had gone, and were returning in the general direction of the home of the deceased. While they were traveling or walking along a road described as 'a little three-path road'--a wagon road that leads from the Sweatsville road to the Knightsville road--the appellant hit Knight (the deceased) in the head with a strick, which blow resulted in Knight's death. Knight was found where he had fallen when struck, and never regained consciousness. After striking the blow, the appellant took the pocket-book of Knight, and unconcernedly to all appearances proceeded in the opposite direction to that he and the deceased were walking. Although the appellant had every opportunity of doing so, he made no report to anyone of having struck the deceased, and it was not until he had been arrested and was in jail that he admitted hitting Knight with a stick. This admission was made two or three days after he was in jail. In his statement to the officers he said that they went into this woods road which is a short cut to Knight's home; that the only reason he went with Mr. Knight was to rob him; that he picked up a piece of puncheon in the road and hit him on the side of the head with it, and that Knight fell; that he saw blood on the side of his head, and that before he left Knight, he robbed him, but found only 26 cents in the picket-book.
When the appellant was arrested at a sawmill where he was operating a button saw that cuts off the end of the lumber he denied striking Knight. And it is also of interest to note that the operation of this button saw requires a man with some experience. On cross-examination of the arresting officer, he testified that 'a child of seven' could not operate a button saw; and that he didn't 'think that a boy seven years old could figure out the length and number'; that he (appellant) must have been doing his work right or they would not let him do it.
We gather from the record that the appellant was not tried at the first term of the Court of General Sessions for Dorchester County convening following the commission of the crime, but that at such term an order was passed committing the appellant to the South Carolina State Hospital for observation as to his mental condition or mental status. He was admitted to said institution on October 16, 1945, and remained there until December 5, 1945. While there he was a patient of Dr. Sol B. McLendon, a physicial and mental specialist, who has been connected with the State Hospital since 1930.
Dr McLendon testified that he and the hospital staff reached the conclusion that the appellant, while mentally defective, was not insane, and that he knew the difference between right and wrong; that they graded him and determined that he had a mental level of a seven year old child. In determining this level, the normal standard of fourteen years was used, which is applicable alike to a boy of sixteen or a man of thirty-five years.
Following the appellant's confession (there is no claim that it was not freely and voluntarily made), he had no trouble in pointing out to the officers the place in the road where the deceased fell when he was struck, and the appellant also told the officers approximately the place where he had discarded the stick or piece of puncheon used to fell the deceased, and identified it when found. He also told them where he had disposed of the pocket-book which he had taken from the deceased after striking him with the stick, and there it was found. There is other...
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