Taylor v. State

• Decision Date: 18 November 1898
• Citation: 31 S.E. 764,105 Ga. 746
• Parties: TAYLOR v. STATE.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

31 S.E. 764

105 Ga. 746

TAYLOR v. STATE.

Supreme Court of Georgia

November 18, 1898

Syllabus by the Court.

1. The rule of law in force in this state which relieves one from criminal responsibility for the commission of an unlawful act on account of mental disease is: If a man has reason sufficient to distinguish between right and wrong in relation to a particular act about to be committed, he is criminally responsible. An exception to this rule is, where a man has reason sufficient to distinguish between right and wrong as to a particular act about to be committed, yet, in consequence of some delusion, his will is overmastered, and there is no criminal intent: Provided, that the act itself is connected with the peculiar delusion under which the prisoner is laboring. Tested by this rule of the law, the evidence in the case fully supported the conviction for murder.

2. A charge in the following language: "The popular idea of malice in its sense of revenge, hatred, ill will, has nothing to do with the subject [legal malice]. It is an intent to kill a human being in a case when the law would neither justify nor in any degree excuse that intention, if a killing should take place as intended,"--states a correct principle of law, and it was not error for the presiding judge to have given it in this case.

3. There is no error in the charge of the court complained of nor in the failure to specifically charge the jury in relation to the probative value of the evidence which showed or tended to show insanity in the family of the accused. While such specific charge would have been proper, it was not demanded by the evidence in this case; certainly not without a written request so to charge.

Error from superior court, Bibb county; W. H. Felton, Jr., Judge.

Abner L. Taylor was convicted of murder, and brings error. Affirmed.

Geo. S Jones, C. H. Hall, Jr., and Du Pont Guerry, for plaintiff in error.

Roland Ellis, Robt, Hodges, Sol. Gen., and J. M. Terrell, Atty Gen., for the State.

LITTLE J.

Abner L. Taylor was brought to trial in the superior court of Bibb county under an indictment charging him with murder. The specific charge in the bill of indictment was that on the 10th day of July, in Bibb county, he feloniously and maliciously killed Minnie L. Taylor by cutting her with a knife. On arraignment the defendant pleaded not guilty. The jury returned a verdict finding the defendant guilty, and sentence in accordance with the verdict was imposed. The defendant filed a motion for a new trial on several grounds, which will hereafter be considered. The motion to set aside the verdict and grant a new trial was refused, and to the order of the court overruling and refusing the new trial the defendant excepted.

The evidence adduced at the trial, as it appears in the record, is voluminous. The material portions of it are as follows:

For the State.

C. H. Logue testified: "Minnie L. Taylor was my daughter. The accused, Abner Taylor, was married to her March 18, 1897. They had one child, born March **, 1898. I was present when my daughter was injured by the defendant. It occurred at my house, in Bibb county, 9 or 10 o'clock in the morning. Two weeks prior to that date, my daughter was at the house of Mrs. Taylor, mother of the accused. Eli Taylor, brother of the accused, started home with her, and she came by my house to see her sister, who was sick. We had my daughter's baby at my house at the time. When my daughter came to my house she agreed to stay a day or two, and I told Eli I would carry her home. The child was at my house because my daughter could not nurse it. We kept it there to raise it on the bottle, as they had no milch cow. On the day my daughter was injured, Eli came there after her to go home. She did not wish to go. Eli then left the house, and went down the road. About 25 or 30 minutes after Eli left, the accused came along. A few minutes afterwards I again saw Eli. My attention was first attracted to the accused, who I saw walking quite fast. I was sitting on the porch, and my daughter was back in the house. When the accused was about 30 steps from the gate, he asked me where Minnie (my daughter) was. I told him she was in the house. He asked me to tell her to come out there, he wanted to talk to her. I called to her, and she refused to go. The accused then came to the gate, called to her, and told her to come out there. She asked him what he wanted. He replied that he wanted to talk to her a few minutes. I then spoke, and said, 'If you want to talk, and will talk right and reasonable, come in, and have a chair.' He came on in, and I handed him a chair, which he did not notice, but walked in the door, and asked his wife why she didn't come home. She replied, 'Why didn't you come after me?' He then said 'Ain't you going back?' and she said, 'No, I'm not.' He then pulled out a pistol, and fired at her, and missed her. I was standing 4 or 5 steps distant, and picked up a piece of ax handle which was lying there, and struck at his hand, but missed him. He then fired, and shot me in the head. He broke and ran through the house, and I pursued him. As he jumped out of the door, I threw the ax handle at him, and struck him on the back. I then started to get something else with which to protect myself, and he turned, and shot me in the side. I then walked back and fainted. In a minute or two I came to my senses, and he was chasing her around through the house, stabbing her with a knife. She was hallooing. He inflicted eight wounds,--six in the back and two in the breast. It looked like these wounds were made with a knife, dirk, or something of that sort. I didn't see it. This happened on Sunday morning. My daughter died Monday evening at 4 o'clock. Frank Jones was there when Taylor came up; also my wife and daughter; also my mother and Eli. I did not see Eli do anything. I saw Ab running after his wife, and Eli around after him. My daughter would have been 22 years old in November next. I never heard the accused make any threats about his wife. My gate was 12 or 15 feet from the house. The accused first asked me where was Minnie. He told me to tell her to come out there, he wanted to see her. She refused to go. When she refused to go she said she was not going. He called again, and told her himself, and she said she was not coming. When he walked to the door, and asked my daughter why she didn't come home when he sent for her, she said: 'Because I didn't intend to. You wouldn't come, and you have not treated me right, and I am not going unless you do.' And he says, 'You are not going?' She says, 'No, I am not.' He drew his pistol, and shot her. After he shot me, he ran through the house to the back door, and was going into the back yard. No one was out there. At that time my daughter was in the back room. He was not going in that direction. He was not going in that direction. He went out because I was after him with a stick. As he jumped out, I threw the stick, and hit him. He turned, and shot me in the thigh. He then came back in the house after my daughter. I fainted away for a minute or two. When I came to, he was running around the house and through the house and in the room. She was screaming. I did not hear him say a word. I saw him make a motion once or twice. I did not see the knife. She offered no resistance. Eli was running right behind Ab, and got within 5 or 6 feet from him. He was following Ab, and Ab was following my daughter. My daughter had been at home a right smart during her sickness. When she was first taken sick, she stayed at home a month. She relapsed, and stayed there nearly a month. She would go home, and stay a week or two weeks, and she would come to my house and stay a week or two. She visited me like other daughters that are married do their parents, occasionally, only as I would go or send after her in case of sickness. I had to go and bring her back and forth a time or two, and bring her to town to the doctor. I don't know whether Ab refused or not. Last fall they were living in my house, and their things were there, and he and her stayed at his brother-in-law's. Me and my wife went to see them. I went to the field where he was stacking fodder. When I come back, she was ready to go home. Both got in the wagon, and we started off. We got a hundred or two hundred yards. He come down the road, and cursed, and said that if she didn't come back somebody would die. I did not know that I was carrying my daughter off without his consent. I was not present when he objected. My wife was there. I don't know whether she was present when he objected or not. I don't know whether he objected or consented. My wife and I were not keeping Mrs. Taylor away from Ab. We were doing everything we could to help them along, and help her in her sickness. She has been feeble nearly all the year since she was confined, and some time before. We did all we could to help her, and tried to build her up. It is not a fact that I was trying to keep her away from him, intending that she should not go back and live with him. He made some complaint about her going away. I could hear of it, about her going. The baby was at my house, and stayed there from the time it was a month old. It was five or six miles from my house to where he lived. When Ab came to my house the day of the occurrence, he did not have his pistol or weapon in his hand. I never saw it. There were no indications of anger, only the threats he made beforehand, that made her afraid to go to him. He looked like he was angry and mad. He was looking that way at the time of the saying and before anything was done. When I first saw him approaching the

gate, he made the impression at that time on my mind that he was angry. He looked pale. Looked like he was mad. He looked...