Williams v. State
| Decision Date | 18 April 1907 |
| Citation | 149 Ala. 4,43 So. 720 |
| Parties | WILLIAMS v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Appeal from Circuit Court, Marengo County; John T. Lackland, Judge.
Alice Williams was convicted of assault with intent to murder, and appeals. Affirmed.
The defendant was charged with assault with intent to murder one Johnson. It appears from the evidence that the defendant and the person assaulted were once husband and wife. The other facts sufficiently appear in the opinion. The court refused to give the defendant the following written charges: (1) General affirmative charge, with hypothesis. (2) "The court charges the jury that unless there is other evidence in this case, save that of Lewis Johnson, which convinces you beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the offense with which he is charged, you cannot convict the defendant, and your verdict should be not guilty." The defendant was convicted, and sentenced to five years in the penitentiary.
Canterbury & Gilder, for appellant.
Alexander M. Garber, Atty. Gen., for the State.
In any criminal proceeding against the husband or wife, for any bodily injury or violence inflicted by the one upon the other, the wife or husband is competent and compellable to testify. Johnson v. State, 94 Ala. 54, 10 So. 427 and authorities there cited; 7 A. & E. Ency. Law (1st Ed.) 102; 30 A. & E. Ency. Law (2d Ed.) 955.
In all manner of offenses involving injury, the wife has always been allowed to testify directly against her husband, and where the husband is the injured party, he may testify against the wife. This comes as a matter of necessity, otherwise the crime might go unpunished. 30 A. & E. E. L. (2d Ed.) 954; 15 A. & E. E. L. (2d Ed.) 904.
The general rule is to exclude the husband or wife in civil or criminal cases, in which the other is a party. 1 Gr. Ev. 334. To this rule there are, however, exceptions, found stated by Mr. Greenleaf in the same volume (section 343). He then states:
The witness, Johnson, was permitted to state, that the defendant had been his wife, but that they had been divorced. The defendant moved to exclude that part of his answer, "but we have been divorced," on the ground, that the decree of divorce, was higher and better evidence of the fact of divorce. But this, if important, was a collateral matter, not immediately affecting their mutual interests in this prosecution, but simply proof of an accidental or collateral fact. 1 Gr....
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