Baker v. State

<p>Accusation of stabbing. Before Judge Hodges. City court of Macon. December 10, 1904.</p> <p>The accusation charged that William Baker did “unlawfully make an assault upon Cleve Johnson and with a certain knife did cut and stab said Cleve Johnson not in self-defense and not under any other circumstances of justification.” There, was a verdictj of guilty, and an exception to the overruling of a motion for a new trial. The ground of the motion was that it did not appear from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the cut or stab was made, as alleged, with a knife. On this point the testimony was as follows (in addition to the exhibition to the jury of the wound on Cleve Johnson’s arm, it being a ragged scar about an inch in length on the left forearm). Johnson testified: “ Baker' came running towards me with his hand drawn back, and cut me in the arm. . . I don’t know what he cut me with; whether it was a knife or a razor.” Another witness testified: “ I saw him when he was cut. . . Baker cut him with something on the arm. I don’t know whether it was a razor or a knife. I saw only the blade; it was about one and a.half inches long. . . I saw him with his hand raised. I could not see whether it was a razor or a knife in his hand.”</p>