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130 Ala. 62

Thomas v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided November 15, 1900

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1900-11-15

Tried before the Hon. A. D. Saybe. The appellant, Dan Thomas, was indicted and tried for the murder of Albert Harris, was convicted of manslaughter in the first degree and sentenced to the penitentiary for ten years.

Relies on Amos v. State · Jolly v. State · Caddell v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1900-11-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently October 1981

5 state decisions

30190019101920193019401950196019701980decided

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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SHARPE, J.

¶1From the evidence it was open to the jury to infer that defendant himself fired a pistol at the deceased and that he being present by his conduct encouraged another to commit the homicide or abetted that other in its commission. Such participation in a crime makes the participant criminally responsible though there may have been no previously formed purpose or agreement to do an illegal act.—Caddell v. State, 129 Ala. 57; Jolly v. State, 94 Ala. 19; Amos v. State, 83 Ala. 1. Each of the charges 1 to 6, inclusive, would have withdrawn from the jury the question of defendant’s culpability as an immediate aidor or abettor in the offense.

¶2If the defendant, acting maliciously with the slayer and other associates, shot at the deceased, the jury might have found that such conduct on his part was for the pupose, and had the effect, of encouraging the slayer to fire the fatal shot. Charge 7 was calculated to mislead the jury to pretermit that consideration and was, therefore, properly refused.

¶3There is no error in the record.

¶4Judgment affirmed.

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