Wells v. State
| Decision Date | 18 June 1914 |
| Docket Number | 514 |
| Citation | 187 Ala. 1,65 So. 950 |
| Parties | WELLS v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Appeal from City Court of Andalusia; Ed T. Albritton, Judge.
Mitchell Wells was convicted of murder in the second degree, sentenced to the penitentiary for 25 years, and he appeals. Reversed and remanded.
The indictment charged that Mitchell Wells unlawfully and with malice aforethought killed B. Sagers, alias B. Segers, by shooting him with a pistol. The evidence admitted as to the former difficulty was that about one-half hour before the shooting Mitchell Wells and deceased had a difficulty; that in fact, there were two difficulties before the shooting took place, the details of which were permitted by the court to be gone into by the state; and that, after the second difficulty, defendant went up around the store about 150 yards away from the place of the shooting, and that he remained there a few minutes, when he came back and the shooting took place. The state was also permitted to show that right immediately after the moment when Sagers was shot down defendant turned his pistol on a fellow named Will Hawkins and tried to pick a chance to shoot him. The other facts sufficiently appear.
The following are the charges refused:
(23) I charge you that you must believe beyond a reasonable doubt from all the evidence in this case that deceased was commonly known and called in the community where he lived by the name of "B. Sagers," or "B. Seegars," before you can find him guilty under the indictment. (24) Practically same as 23.
Baldwin & Murphy, of Andalusia, for appellant.
R.C Brickell, Atty. Gen., and T.H. Seay, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
While it has long been settled by the decisions of this court that the violent character of the deceased may be shown by the defendant in a homicide case, the right to do so arises only after there has been evidence tending to show self-defense that is, some overt act or hostile demonstration upon the part of the deceased. At the time the defendant attempted to prove the character of the deceased, by the witness John Minshew, there had been no evidence tending to show that the deceased was the aggressor, and the trial court did not err in declining to let the defendant prove this fact, although the evidence may have been admissible by the subsequent development of the defendant's evidence, had it been subsequently offered.
While the state had a right to show a former difficulty between the defendant and the deceased, it had no right to go into the details or particulars. Bluett v. State, 151 Ala. 41, 44 So. 84; Robinson v. State, 155 Ala. 67, 45 So. 916; Patterson v. State, 156 Ala. 62, 47 So. 52. The trial court committed reversible error in permitting the details and particulars of the prior difficulty. Nor was it so closely connected with the killing as to be one and the same transaction and so contemporaneous therewith as to make it a part of the res gestae. The proof shows that the former difficulty had ended when the defendant left and went to a store, where he remained four or five minutes. State v. Stallings, 142 Ala. 112, 38 So. 261.
The fact that the defendant, immediately after shooting the deceased,...
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Smith v. State
...Gray v. State, 63 Ala. 66; McAnally v. State, 74 Ala. 9; Garrett v. State, supra; Stitt v. State, supra; Jackson v. State, supra; Wells v. State, supra. 3. defendant sought by the witness, Lucy Washington, to prove isolated and particular acts of violence, as tending to show that the deceas......
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Henderson v. State
...of the deceased. Farley v. State, 279 Ala. 98, 182 So.2d 364 (1966); Wright v. State, 252 Ala. 46, 39 So.2d 395 (1949); Wells v. State, 187 Ala. 1, 65 So. 950 (1914); Green v. State, 143 Ala. 2, 39 So. 362 (1904). Such evidence is not available to the defendant if he or she is the aggressor......
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Ashworth v. Alabama Great Southern R. Co.
...reversed, and the cause is remanded. Reversed and remanded. ANDERSON, C.J., and SOMERVILLE and BOULDIN, JJ., concur. --------- Notes: [1] 65 So. 950. --------- ...
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Smith v. State, 6 Div. 229
...of the deceased. Farley v. State, 279 Ala. 98, 182 So.2d 364 (1966); Wright v. State, 252 Ala. 46, 39 So.2d 395 (1949); Wells v. State, 187 Ala. 1, 65 So. 950 (1914); Green v. State, 143 Ala. 2, 39 So. 362 (1904)." Bankston v. State, 358 So.2d 1040, 1042 (Ala.1978). See also, C. Gamble, McE......