Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

3 Ala. App. 1

Crawford v. State

Alabama Court of Appeals

Decided January 16, 1912

Alabama Court of Appeals · decided 1912-01-16

Heard before Hon. Armstead Br'own. Harwell Crawford was convicted of murder in tlie second degree, and be appeal's. Provo testified as a witness for the state that he saw the difficulty, and that both participants were drunk; that the defendant- was so drunk that every time be would make a pass at deceased be would fall; and that the deceased was also drunk, but did not fall until'be started to run.

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently August 1924

3 state decisions

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Affirmed · Decided 1912-01-16

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

WALKER, P. J.

¶1The defendant could not have been prejudiced by the action of the court in overruling his objection to the question asked the witness Provo by the solicitor, as the answer to the question was favorable to the defendant.

¶2On the cross-examination of the defendant’s witness Gray, the solicitor, without objection on the part- of the defendant, elicited the fact that the defendant had formerly been indicted for assault with intent to murdei. This did not entitle the defendant to go into the details of the subject of that former charge. The question asked by his counsel as to what were the facts in that case was an inquiry in reference to a matter foreign to the issues in the pending case; and the objection to it was properly sustained.

¶3The defendant having testified as a witness in his own behalf, it was permissible for the solicitor, on the cross-examination, to ask him questions calculated to test the accuracy of his statements, and to disclose his relations with others who had been examined as witnesses for him. We discover no prejudicial error in any of the rulings made on objections to questions asked in the course of that cross-examination.

¶4We know of no warrant of law for asserting any such proposition as that the question of the criminal responsibility of the defendant in a homicide case is affected by the mere fact that at the time of the killing he was under the influence of whisky that had been sold or fur*5nislied to him by the deceased, or that that fact would entitle him to an acquittal. Plainly the defendant was not entitled to the written charges involving such propositions, whether or not those charges were otherwise objectionable.

¶5Under the evidence, the question of the defendant’s guilt of homicide was one for the jury. There was no error in the refusal of the affirmative charge requested in his behalf.

¶6Affirmed.

/3/alaapp/1 · .json · Public domain