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106 Miss. 507

Carter v. State

Mississippi Supreme Court

Decided October 15, 1913

Mississippi Supreme Court · decided 1913-10-15

HoN. N. A. Taylor, Judge. Will Carter was convicted of burglary and appeals. The facts are fully stated in the opinion of the court. The appellant, Will Carter, was indicted by the grand jury of DeSoto county, Mississippi, in February, 1913, for burglary in the breaking and entering and stealing money from S. T. Stewart’s storehouse located in said county. The said storehouse was broken open before nine-thirty o’clock p. m. December 26, 1912.

Relies on State v. Adams · State v. . Freeman

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1913-10-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 7 later decisions — most recently September 2010

7 state decisions

3019131920193019401950196019701980199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Eebd, J.,

¶1delivered the opinion of the court.

¶2Appellant was convicted on a charg'e of burglary, and sentenced to the penitentiary for one year.

¶3The store of S. T. Stewart, near Cockrum, in De Soto county, was broken into on December 26, 1912, after nightfall, and some ten dollars or twelve dollars in the cash drawer stolen. The burglary occurred between the *512time when Mr. Stewart closed Ms store, wMcli was, lie says, between sundown and dark, and Ms return thereto between nine and ten o’clock. ' He telephoned for bloodhounds, and he placed a guard around the premises, so that the store would not be disturbed. The dogs arrived about five o’clock in the morning of December 28, 1912, at least thirty-two hours after the burglary, and thereupon trailed to appellant’s house, and to appellant in person. It was established by the testimony of several citizens that appellant bore a good reputation for honesty in the community where he lived. There is no evidence to connect appellant with the crime, except the circumstance of the dogs trailing to him from the place of the burglary.

¶4Shall a person, charged with crime, be convicted upon the fact, alone and unsupported that trained bloodhounds trailed from the scene of the crime to him? It has been held that evidence of the location of a criminal by blood- . hounds, after proving sufficiently the character, training, and experience of the ammals, so as to show that they were accurate, certain, and reliable in following the trail of human footsteps, is admissible. Following this rule, the admission of this class of evidence will be further governed by the conditions and circumstances of each particular case.

¶5Such evidence may be deemed a circumstance to be considered, in connection with other proof, in determining the guilt or innocence of the accused. State v. Adams, 85 Kan. 435, 116 Pac. 608, 35 L. R. A. (N. S.) 870; State v. Freeman, 146 N. C. 615, 60 S. E. 986. Alone and unsupported, such evidence is insufficient to sustain a conviction; there must be other and human testimony to convict. In this case there was an entire failure by the state to produce affirmative proof to justify the verdict of guilty. The motion made to exclude the evidence for the state and to discharge appellant should have been sustained.

¶6Reversed, and appellant discharged.

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