Wade v. The State Of Ga.
| Decision Date | 30 September 1880 |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
| Parties | Wade. v. The State of Georgia. |
*Criminal law. New trial. Charge of Court. Alibi. Practice in the Superior Court. Evidence. Before
Judge Wright. Baker Superior Court. May Term, 1880.
To the report contained in the decision it is only necessary to add the following: Wade was indicted for the murder of one J. L Ready. One defense relied on was alibi. He was found guilty, and the jury recommended that he be imprisoned for life. He moved for a new trial, which was refused, and he excepted.
A. L Hawes; H. C. Sheffield; H. Morgan, for plaintiff in error.
R. N. Ely, attorney-general; W. O. Fleming, solicitor-general, by Z. D. Harrison, for the state.
The plaintiff in error having his motion for a new trial overruled, seeks a reversal of that judgment.
1. Because the verdict was contrary to evidence. There can be no better ground for a reversal than this, and we proceed to its consideration. The testimony shows that Wade said in January before the killing in April, that he wished Ready would die. They had a difficulty about two weeks before Ready was killed. He said to another witness a few days before the killing, that Ready would be found dead in his field some day, and nobody would know who killed him, and this he repeated about ten o'clock of the same day on which he was killed. About one hour and a half by sun he was seen to come out of his own house with what the witness took to be a gun, and going in the direction of Ready, and when he discovered the witness, appeared to want to hide it; he had also said to this witness that he would kill Ready if he fooled with him. About sundown of that same evening Ready was killed in hisfield and nobody did know who did it. He was, how-ever, killed with a rifle ball, and Wade *had borrowed, and had in his possession, a rifle belonging to Mr Jeffries. The patching with which a rifle was loaded was found near the fence where the assailant fired. A rifle was seen at Wade\'s house the next morning after the killing with the fresh marks of burnt powder and smoke around the tube. Wade lived two and a half or three miles from Ready, yet he went onthe night of the murder to the coroner\'s, and wanted him to go that night and hold the inquest; was anxious that it should be done. After the inquest was over, an examination by several persons took place of the locality from whence the shooting was said to have been done, by a witness who was at work with the deceased in the field when he was shot. There they found the tracks of a man, which, upon measurement, in length and width, corresponded with Wade\'s. There was a half sole or patch on one shoe with a hole worn in it, which left a raised place in the dirt where the track was made. Wade\'s shoe had just such a half sole with just such a hole in it. These tracks were found in the fence corner from whence the gun was fired, and they were followed for a mile and a half towards Wade\'s house. When these tracks were being measured Wade was present; each man submitted to a measurement of his foot without trepidation, but when Wade\'s was measured he turned pale and trembled.
With this testimony before the jury we do not think that the verdict was contrary to evidence.
2. Because the jury found against this charge of the court: "If the state has shown you by the proof a chain of circumstances that point so directly to the man's guilt as to satisfy your minds beyond a reasonable doubt, and you can't reasonably account under the evidence for the entire transaction upon any other reasonable hypothesis than that the man did the killing, then your verdict will be, 'We, the jury, find the defendant guilty.' "
This ground in the motion simply challenges in another form the sufficiency of the testimony to justify a convic-tion. *No objection is made to the charge itself, and the jury, by their verdict, say that under the evidence they can't account upon any other reasonable hypothesis for the killing of the deceased than that the defendant was the guilty party.
3. For error in the following charge: "That when a number of witnesses testify to the same transaction, and there is a difference (an immaterial difference only) as to the main point in issue, it is rather an evidence of strength than weakness in the...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Whisman v. State
...A sheriff or deputy who testifies in a case can have charge of the jury without prejudice, or affording grounds for complaint. See Wade v. State, 65 Ga. 756; Daniel v. State, 187 Ga. 411, 1 S.E.2d 6. No error is shown by the ground assigning error on the overruling of the motion for mistria......
-
State v. Hecox
...rightly refused. State v. Vincent, 24 Ia. 570; State v. Northup, 48 Ia. 583; State v. Red, 53 Ia. 69; State v. Reitz, 83 N. C. 634; Wade v. State, 65 Ga. 756. BLACK, J. The first count of the indictment charged the defendant with breaking and entering on October 15, 1878, “a certain buildin......
-
State v. Jennings
...48 Ia. 583; State v. Kline, 54 Ia. 183; State v. Krewsen, 57 Ia. 588; State v. Red, 53 Ia. 69; State v. Reitz, 83 N. C. 634; Wade v. State, 65 Ga. 756. NORTON, J. The defendant was indicted in the circuit court of Henry county at its December term, 1882, and at the same term, on the 12th of......
-
Collier v. State
... ... power of the defendant to have been where the proof of alibi ... placed him and also at the scene of the crime. The evidence ... on this subject must be such as reasonably to exclude the ... possibility of his presence at the scene of the crime ... Johnson v. State, 59 Ga. 142; Wade v ... State, 65 Ga. 756 (4); Harris v. State, 120 Ga ... 167, 47 S.E. 520; Hunter v. State, 136 Ga. 103, 70 ... S.E. 643. The court did not commit error in its instruction ... on this subject ... 4. The ... verdict is supported by evidence. We cannot say that it is ... ...