Strady v. State

• Decision Date: 30 April 1868
• Citation: 45 Tenn. 300
• Parties: Alexander Strady v. The State.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

45 Tenn. 300

Alexander Strady

v.The State.

Supreme Court of Tennessee.

April Term, 1868.

FROM TIPTON.

The plaintiff in error, with one Sills, were convicted of murder in the first degree, at the ______ Term, 1867; sentence of death was pronounced, and an appeal taken to this Court. Sills has died since the appeal. Judge GEORGE W. REEVES, presiding.HUMPHREY BATE, for Plaintiff in Error.

THOS. H. COLDWELL, Attorney-General, for the State.

MILLIGAN, J., delivered the opinion of the Court.

In 1866, the prisoner, Strady, with Daniel G. Walters and John Sills,--all free persons of color,--were indicted in the Circuit Court of Tipton County, for the murder of Joseph Dickey. Sills and Strady were tried and convicted of murder in the first degree, and sentenced to be executed; from which they have appealed to this Court.

Sills, as it seems, is dead; and the case stands here alone in the name of Strady.

The bill of exceptions shows that the killing was perpetrated on the night of the 25th of May, 1866, in the storehouse of the deceased. The next morning after the murder, the deceased was found in the store-room, with doors locked, or barred, lying on the floor with his throat cut, and a “gash” on the side of his head. Near him was a pan of water, his shoes and socks, and a hatchet, with blood and brains on the hatchet. His hat was found outside of the house, near one of the doors, with “a gash four inches long,” cut in it, with some blood upon it. Near the body, on the floor in the room, was found a pocket-book, torn open,--no money in it,--and several pieces of goods taken from the shelves, lying in different parts of the room.

The tracks of three persons,--two coarse brogans, and one “fine shoes,”--were traced from the river, and back again to a point on the river, which bore the marks of a skiff's having been landed at that point.

Two of the sons of the deceased were examined as witnesses; and, although they agree in the general and substantial circumstances attending the perpetration of the horrid deed, there is, nevertheless, some singular discrepancies in their statements, especially in reference to the number and character of the wounds on their father's head and face, the cuts in his hat, and, perhaps, the tracks leading from the river and again back in the same direction. But both undertake to detail, with great particularity, the subsequent confessions of the prisoner.

The confessions, as detailed by these witnesses, need not be particularly set out, further than to say, they admit the homicide was committed by the three parties named and charged in the indictment; and that the object in killing the deceased, was, to possess themselves of his money. In the confessions, as detailed by these witnesses, there appears to be a description of the condition of the room, locality of its furniture, and the shoes, pan and hatchet, which corresponds in some particulars, with the facts as proven after the body was found.

These witnesses state that there was no violence or threats used in their presence, to induce the confessions; but the subsequent examination of the witnesses, shows that the prisoner, Strady, denied all connection with the killing, until they were literally extorted from him by hanging. One of the witnesses, J. W. Ballard, states, that on Monday after the killing, which, as it appears, took place on Friday night previous, he and others “took Strady out to make him talk--took him to some woods, and told him to tell it soon or he might not have a chance, as we thought he might die. He had been tied all the time during his arrest--the rope was then around his neck; we then threw the rope over a limb, and pulled him up right smartly, until he was badly choked, and when let down he fell to the ground senseless; and on recovering, he still denied his connection with the murder; when we got a block to raise him on, and when we were raising him the second time, he confessed he and Sills had done the murder.”

The witness further, in substance, stated, that the next day after this most cruel transaction, Sills was sent for, who had been confined in Covington jail, and told that Strady had “told all about the crime, and it would be better for him to do the same.” He also denied all connection with it, and previously had made no confessions whatever. He was then taken to the same place where Strady, the day before, had been hung; and as he was being swung up, he confessed that “he, Alexander and Walters, had murdered Dickey.”

It appears that neither Sills or Strady, in their confessions to the witnesses who extorted them, made any statement which was corroborated by the situation of the room when the body of deceased was found, or by any thing else which was proven, as tending to establish their guilt.

But on the next day, or the day after Sills and Strady were committed to jail, Sills, after being cautioned by the Sheriff, that it would, perhaps, be better for him to say nothing about the alleged murder, took the sheriff aside in the prison, and made a mere circumstantial confession of the crime, involving himself, Walters and Strady, in guilt. But the confessions made by Sills to the sheriff do not appear to have been assented to by Strady, or even heard by him. They were made in a remote part of the jail, separate and apart from the other prisoners.

The bill of exceptions shows that the confessions, in the progress of the trial, were excepted to as soon as it appeared that they were extorted by violence; and the Court sustained the exception in the singular language, following: “The Court overruled all confessions, but that which proved the corpus delicti, or the discovery of the facts, or corroborated by facts already known.”

But, notwithstanding this ruling of the Court, which to say the least of it, is somewhat obscure to unpracticed minds, it appears that the other witnesses were permitted to detail...