Washington v. State
| Decision Date | 18 November 1929 |
| Docket Number | 28021 |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
| Parties | WASHINGTON v. STATE |
HOMICIDE. Evidence held insufficient to sustain conviction for murder. Evidence held insufficient to sustain conviction for murder.
APPEAL from circuit court of Coahoma county, Second district, HON W. A. ALCORN, JR., Judge.
Percy Washington was convicted of murder, and he appeals. Reversed, and defendant discharged.
Judgment reversed, and appellant discharged.
Brewer & Brewer and Tom T. Ross, all of Clarksdale, for appellant.
In order to justify a conviction on circumstantial evidence alone it must exclude every other reasonable hypothesis than that of guilt.
Algeri v. State, 25 Miss. 584; Johns Case, 24 Miss. 569; Morris State Cases 608; Calebs Case, 39 Miss. 721; Taylor v. State, 108 Miss. 18.
The mere fact that defendant might have been present at the scene of the crime is not sufficient to show a conspiracy.
Harper v. State, 83 Miss. 402; Crawford v. State, 133 Miss. 147, 97 So. 534; Browning v. State, 30 Miss. 656; Gilliam v. State, 62 Miss. 547; Osborne v. State, 55 So. 52; Browning v. State, 30 Miss. 656; Street v. State, 43 Miss. 2; Gambrell v. State, 46 So. 138, 92 Miss. 728; Greenleaf, Ev., sec. 111; 2 Stark, Ev. 327.
Every presumption in a criminal case is in favor of the defendant.
Evidence that defendant had a revolver two months after the offense is not admissible, when such revolver is not identified as the one that the offender used.
16 C. J. 549; State v. Kehr, 133 Iowa 35; Herman v. State, 22 So. 873, 75 Miss. 340.
Subject to well-defined exceptions proof of crime distinct from that for which defendant is tried is inadmissible.
Baygents v. State, 144 Miss. 442, 110 So. 114; McLin v. State, 116 So. 533; Collier v. State, 106 Miss. 613, 64 So. 510; Keel v. State, 133 Miss. 160, 97 So. 521; Dabney v. State, 82 Miss. 252, 33 So. 973.
Acts and declarations of witnesses out of the presence of the accused are inadmissible against him.
Long v. State, 81 Miss. 448, 33 So. 224.
The argument must be confined to the evidence.
Smith v. State, 141 Miss. 772, 105 So. 758; Martin v. State, 63 Miss. 505, 56 Am. Rep. 812; Kelly v. State, 74 So. 679, 113 Miss. 850.
W. A. Shipman, Assistant Attorney-General, for the state.
Where two or more persons conspire to accomplish any unlawful purpose, or a lawful purpose by any unlawful means, it is a conspiracy and each is responsible for the acts of the other.
Hemingway's Code 1927, sec. 851; Wharton on Homicide, 657, 658; McLain on Criminal Law, sec. 953; Underhill on Criminal Evidence (2 Ed.), secs. 490, 491; Street v. State, 43 Miss. 1; Osborn v. State, 99 Miss. 410, 55 So. 52; Harper v. State, 83 Miss. 402; Rich v. State, 124 Miss. 272, 86 So. 770; Pickett v. State, 139 Miss. 529, 104 So. 358.
In the circuit court of Coahoma county, Percy Washington, the appellant, and Henry Taylor were jointly indicted for the murder of Lynn Coleman. On arraignment of the two defendants, the court granted a severance, and Henry Taylor was tried and convicted of murder and was sentenced to the penitentiary for life. Afterwards, and at the same term of court, the appellant was tried and was likewise convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in the state penitentiary; and, from this conviction and sentence, he prosecuted this appeal.
The material facts shown in this record are substantially, as follows: About four-thirty o'clock in the afternoon, Lynn Coleman, Henry Taylor, and two other negroes left Jonestown in a Ford automobile, belonging to Coleman, and proceeded to the home of Frank Wyman about three and one half miles away. Somewhere along the road they met up with the appellant, who lived a short distance from Wyman's, and he got into the automobile and went with them to Wyman's home. Upon arriving there, a friendly argument arose as to the skill of one Claud Bumpus as a marksman, and, in order to decide a small wager that was made by the appellant and Bumpus, Wyman's single-barrel shotgun was procured and fired one time. The appellant lost and paid his bet, and also paid Wyman for the shell; then Henry Taylor repaid the appellant the fifty-five cents he had lost as a result of this shooting contest. Wyman testified that he then took the gun, and, without having extricated the empty shell therefrom, placed it behind a trunk in one of the rooms of the house. He further testified that the only other shells in the house were in a trunk.
After the shooting contest, all the parties went into the house and engaged in a game of craps or dice which continued until about dark, when Henry Taylor announced that he was broke, and left the room. In a short while the said Taylor appeared at the door of the room with Wyman's shotgun, and pointed it at the crowd who were engaged in the game, and, with an oath, demanded that they give up his money. Thereupon the appellant discovered a convenient window and immediately disappeared through the same, while the witness, Claud Bumpus, followed suit. Henry Taylor, without making any further effort to recover the money he lost, left the house carrying the gun with him. Wyman protested against his taking the gun away, but he disappeared along a settlement road which leads from Wyman's home to a graveled highway about three or four hundred yards away.
Frank Wyman's wife and Willie Bumpus testified that about dark of that evening they were traveling along this graveled highway going toward the Wyman home, and that, about the time they reached the intersection of this highway and the road leading to the home of Wyman, Henry Taylor passed them going in the opposite direction; that just after passing them, Taylor met the appellant who was traveling in the same direction as the two witnesses; that Taylor turned and followed the appellant; that they passed these witnesses, Taylor being a few feet behind the appellant; that both Taylor and the appellant had guns, and, as they were passing them on the road, Taylor said, "Let's go down there and get our money, or kill those "; that appellant did not reply to this statement or give any indication that he heard it, but both of them proceeded down the settlement road toward the home of Wyman; and that about that time these witnesses heard the motor of the automobile start at Wyman's home, and also saw the lights of said automobile turned on, and shortly thereafter they heard two gunshots.
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