Walker v. State, 17447
| Decision Date | 14 May 1951 |
| Docket Number | No. 17447,17447 |
| Citation | 65 S.E.2d 403,208 Ga. 99 |
| Parties | WALKER v. STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
W. L. Walker was charged with the murder of Mrs. Mary Kesler, and was convicted without a recommendation of mercy. He filed a motion for new trial on the usual general grounds, which was amended by the addition of three special grounds. The first special ground assigned as error the instruction of the court to the jury that the burden was on the defendant to prove his contention that he was insane at the time of the homicide to the reasonable satisfaction of the jury. The second special ground assigned error on the failure of the court to charge that the burden was on the defendant to prove his insanity by a preponderance of the evidence. The third special ground assigned error on the failure of the court to define a preponderance of the evidence. The court overruled the motion for new trial, as amended, and the exception is to that judgment.
On the date of the homicide, September 11, 1950, the defendant, who was sixty-five years of age, was living in the home of his sister, the deceased, who was seventy-seven years of age. Their sister, Mrs. Thomas, seventy-five years of age, also lived with the deceased. Briscoe Williams, his wife, and baby, occupied an apartment in the same house.
Mrs. Thomas testified that on the evening of the homicide she and the deceased had played a game of cards. The defendant's room had formerly been a hall, and there was an opening between the bedroom of the sisters and the defendant's room. After the card game was finished, the defendant came into the room with a golf club in his hand, and inquired about the game. Thereafter the deceased went to bed. The witness went into the kitchen and was near the sink, with her back to the door. Something struck her on the head twice and she fell to the floor. She did not see who struck her. She was unconscious after that and does not remember what else happened.
Briscoe Williams testified that on the night of the homicide he was awakened by loud screaming, knocking, and running in the apartment of Mrs. Kesler, which adjoined his apartment. The screaming was a woman's voice, very shrill. He jumped up, put on his clothes, and ran out the back door. As he was running around on the outside of the house, just as he turned the corner, he heard a thud, and the noise stopped. When he reached the kitchen door he 'hollered' several times and asked what was the matter, what was going on in there, and no one answered. He 'hollered' again, and shook the screen door, and stood there a little bit, and in a few seconds the defendant said, 'Just a minute.' The witness stood there, and the defendant unlocked the door. He did not hear the defendant walk across the floor before he opened the door; the defendant must have been standing there. The witness stepped in the door, and asked the defendant several times what was the matter. For some little time the defendant did not answer, and then the witness looked down on the floor and saw Mrs. Thomas lying on the floor. The witness looked back up at the defendant and asked him what had happened. The defendant did not say anything for some little time, and in a few seconds he nodded his head and said, 'Go on in yonder; Miss Mary is worse than she is.' The witness started in there and the defendant walked slowly behind him. When he saw Mrs. Kesler in the bed he thought she was dead; she was as bloody as she could be. He asked the defendant again what happened and the defendant did not answer. He told the defendant he was going for help, and the defendant asked him whom he would get. The witness replied that he would get Melvin or his daddy-in-law, or somebody, and the defendant said, 'Don't leave me.' He told the defendant that he could not stay there and get help too. When the witness came back to the house, the defendant was lying in his room on the bed. He noticed some blood on the defendant's right arm. He saw a hatchet with blood on it. He noticed blood spattered on the cabinet and in the soap tray and on the soap. He had seen the defendant with a golf club in his hand, around the house, every day. It looked just like the one exhibited to him, before it was torn up.
Other witnesses, who came to the scene of the homicide later the same evening, testified that when they asked the defendant what happened, he did not reply, or merely repeated their question. Pieces of the metal head of a golf club were found near the victim's bed. J. M. Rainey identified the golf club as a particular type of club, an adjustable one, owned by the defendant. All the witnesses stated that the defendant appeared perfectly calm. The defendant complained that he was suffering from a heart attack, and he was taken to the hospital. The physician who examined him on his arrival at the hospital testified that he showed no appearance of having recently had a heart attack.
Dr. John McPherson, who attened the...
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