Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

252 Ala. 25

39 So.2d 249

Ison v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided February 24, 1949

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1949-02-24

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“"The law on this question is thus stated in Baugh v. State, 215 Ala. 619, 621 , 112 So. 157 , 159: `A person attacked in his own dwelling, under conditions otherwise entitling him to strike in self-defense, is not required to retreat although his assailant also resides in the same dwelling.' And in the recent case of Bryant v. State, [252] Ala. [153], 39 So.2d 657 , 658 * * * it was there noted: `A proper statement of the pertinent doctrine is that a person is not obligated to retreat where, being without fault in bringing on the difficulty, he is assaulted while in his dwelling house, office, or place of business, or within the curtilage thereof, and it is immaterial whether the assailant is an intruder or another lawful occupant of the premises, but a defendant not so circumstanced is without the benefit of the doctrine."”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 44 Ala. App. 171 - Shine v. State

Relies on Baugh v. State · Bryant v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1949-02-24

How this case has been cited

Cited by 17 later decisions — most recently June 1982

17 state decisions

7019491950196019701980decided

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 →

SIMPSON, Justice.

¶1 The Court of Appeals reversed the judgment of the lower court on two grounds: first, the improper abridgement by the trial court of the cross-examination of the principal State’s witness when the defendant sought to elicit proof as to the person from whom the witness procured the alleged murder weapon which the State was proffering as evidence in the case; and, second, the refusal to give the special written charge requested by the defendant, “The court charges the jury that there was no duty on the defendant to retreat in this case.”

¶2 Certiorari will be denied, but we deem it proper to set forth our views. .

¶3 As regards the first ground, only a full review of the record could disclose the pertinency or importance of the evidence which was sought to be elicited and whether or not the trial judge abused his discretion in forbidding its introduction. The entire evidence is not before us and, under our limited review, we cannot go to the record but will adopt the conclusions of the Court of Appeals thereon.

¶4 As to the second proposition, regarding the propriety of. refusing the quoted charge, it of course would depend on whether or not the defendant was without fault.

¶5 The law on this question is thus stated in Baugh v. State, 215 Ala. 619, 621, 121 So; 157, 159: “A person attacked in his own dwelling, under conditions otherwise entitling him to strike in self-defense, *26 is not required to retreat although his assailant also resides in the same dwelling.”

¶6 And, in the recent case of Bryant v. State, post p. 153, 39 So.2d 657, 658, in pointing out that the propriety of giving a charge such as the one here considered depended on the state of the evidence, it was there noted: “A proper statement of the pertinent doctrine is that a person is not obligated to retreat where, being without fault in bringing on the difficulty, he is assaulted while in his dwelling house, office, or place of business, or within the curtilage thereof, and it is immaterial whether the assailant is an intruder or another lawful occupant of the premises, but a defendant not so circumstanced is without the benefit of the doctrine.”

¶7 Therefore, if there was evidence affording an inference that the defendant willingly engaged in the altercation culminating in the death of the deceased, the quoted charge should have been refused.

¶8 In the light of another trial, we have considered it necessary to make the foregoing observations.

¶9 Writ denied.

BROWN, LIVINGSTON and STAKE-LY, JJ., concur.
/252/ala/25 · .json · Public domain