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147 Ala. 39

Outler v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided June 14, 1906

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1906-06-14

<p> Murder. </p> <p>1. Homicide; Evidence; Sufficiency. In a difficulty between defendant and deceased immediately before the killing, defendant secured deceased’s pistol and shot him while he was retreating; Held, defendant was guilty of some degree of homicide.</p> <p>2. Criminal La.u>; Trial; Instruction; Misleading. — There being other evidence from which the jury was authorized to return a verdict of guilt, a charge which asserts that if the testimony of a named witness, or any part thereof, was wilfully false, the jury could disregard it and find accused not guilty, was misleading and properly refused.</p> <p>3. Same; Argumentative Instructions. — An instruction directing the jury that they may look to the fact that the pistol used in killing deceased was deceased’s pistol and not defendant’s in fixing the grade of the homicide, was properly refused as being-argumentative.</p> <p>4. Same; Instruction as to Duty of Jurors; Reasonable Doubt.— A charge requiring an acquittal if either or any one of the jury have a reasonable doubt of the defendant’s guilt, is erroneous as requiring a verdict upon the belief of one juror.</p> <p>5. Homicide; Instructions; Self .Defense; Omission of Evidence. — A charge requiring an acquittal if the jury believe that at the time the fatal shot was fired defendant acted upon the honest belief that ho was in danger of life or great bodily harm at ithe hands of the deceased, was properly refused as omitting all reference to defendant’s freedom from fault in bringing on the difficulty.</p>

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“dependent solely upon the witness' testimony with which the charge dealt.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Connolly v. State

Relies on Jackson v. State · Mathews v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1906-06-14

How this case has been cited

Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently May 1991

13 state decisions

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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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

TYSON, J.

¶1The defendant’s conviction was not dependent upon the testimony of witness Terry. Indeed, under the testimony adduced through other witnesses, who saw the shooting ,the jury might well have found the defendant guilty. If it be true that defendant shot deceased while he was running, after getting possession of 1ns pistol, no matter who was at fault in bringing on the difficulty in which the pistol was wrenched by defendant from the hands of the deceased, he could not be *42guiltless. It was with respect as to what occurred between deceased and defendant prior to the scuffle between them over the pistol that Terry’s testimony was uncorroborated. Charge 1A, we think, was calculated to mislead the jury, if not otherwise bad. It is true that in Jackson v. State, 136 Ala. 22, 34 South. 188, we held that a charge, similar to this one in all respects except in that one, the willful and malicious falsity of the wit-ness’ testimony was predicated upon a material part' of his testimony and should have been given. But in that case the conviction was dependent solely upon the witness ’testimony with which the charge dealt.

¶2Charge 11. was an argument. Mathews v. State, 100 Ala. 46, 14 South. 359, and cases there cited.

¶3Charges A, B, C, and F were faulty, if not otherwise bad in omitting the proper postulation as to defendant’s freedom from fault in bringing on the difficulty.

¶4The defendant’s guilt, as charged, under the evidence, was clearly for the determination of the jury. Charges D, E, and C were therefore properly refused.

¶5Charges I and J made defendant’s acquittal turn upon the finding of one juror.

¶6Affirmed.

Weakley, C. -T., and Simpson and Anderson, JJ., concur.
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