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185 Ala. 30

Walker v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided January 15, 1914

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1914-01-15

Heard before Hon. William E. Fort. John Walker, alias, etc., was convicted of murder in the first degree, sentenced to life imprisonment, and appeals. Several witnesses testified that they were present at the home of deceased on the night she was shot; that she was shot in the stomach with a pistol and lived about 10 or 11 days thereafter, when she died at a hospital.

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently January 1949

4 state decisions

Relies on Moore v. State · Lewis v. State · Fowler v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Affirmed · Decided 1914-01-15

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SAYRE, J.

¶1On the facts shown the trial court was-well justified in admitting evidence of the statement made by deceased as her dying declaration, and this though she survived the wound and her declaration of the circumstances for 10 or 11 days and subsequently made a contradictory statement, as one of the witnesses testified. — 1 Mayf. Dig. p. 287, §§ 26-72; Moore v. State, 12 Ala. 764, 46 Am. Dec. 276; Lewis v. State, 178 Ala. 26, 59 South. 577.

¶2There was no error in refusing the special charge requested by defendant. It had a tendency to excite speculation, whereas cases should be.determined upon the facts as the jury finds them from the evidence. If by “theory” defendant had reference to his own theory of innocence, that was not a matter about which the jury needed to give itself concern. If, on the other hand, the charge was intended to state the proposition that the law presumes innocence until guilt is established beyond a reasonable doubt, as defendant’s citation of authorities would seem to indicate, not only was that proposition covered by other instructions given at defendant’s request, but it was an imperfect, confusing, and misleading statement of that law, and was for that reason properly refused. — Fowler v. State, 100 Ala. 100, 14 South. 860.

¶3Affirmed.

Anderson, C. J., and McClellan, and Somerville, JJ., concur.
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