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319 So. 2d 223

Docket No. 48629.

Fleming v. State

Carroll FLEMING and Paul Fleming v. STATE of Mississippi.

Mississippi Supreme Court

Decided September 22, 1975.

Rehearing Denied October 20, 1975.

Mississippi Supreme Court · decided 1975-09-22

Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently September 1994

11 state decisions

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“We have condemned this instruction so often that we hope it should be plain to all that the instruction is not proper.”

quoted by 3 later decisions, including 178 Wis. 2d 648 - Ollman v. Wisconsin Health Care Liability Insurance Plan, 178 Wis. 2d 648 - Ollman v. HEALTH CARE LIAB. INS.

“... the granting of a cautionary instruction as to the testimony of an accomplice is discretionary with the trial judge and is not the subject of error on appeal to this Court. Wellborn v. State, 140 Miss. 640 , 105 So. 769 (1925); Cheatham v. State, 67 Miss. 335 , 7 So. 204 (1890).”

quoted by 2 later decisions, including Derden v. State, 473 So. 2d 478 - Hussey v. State

Relies on Cheatham v. State · Wellborn v. State · 291 So. 2d 187 - Moore v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1975-09-22

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1Murray L. Williams, Water Valley, for appellants.

¶2A.F. Summer, Atty. Gen., by Billy L. Gore, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.

¶3Before RODGERS, SUGG and BROOM, JJ.

¶4RODGERS, Presiding Justice.

¶5The appellants, Carroll and Paul Fleming, were indicted, tried and convicted in the Circuit Court of Calhoun County, Mississippi, on a charge of burglary. They *224 were each sentenced to serve a term of seven (7) years in the state penitentiary, and from this judgment they have appealed to this Court.

¶6We have examined the record in the light of the splendid briefs; we have read the authorities cited in support of the suggested errors and have failed to find an error on which a reversal of the trial judgment may be predicated.

¶7The conviction in this case was predicated upon the sworn testimony of a co-conspirator, a man with a long criminal record. The appellants earnestly complain of this testimony under several alleged errors of the trial court. However, the weight and worth of the testimony is for the jury. This Court has long been committed to the proposition that the uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice, when reasonable, is sufficient to sustain a verdict of conviction. See the authorities cited in Moore v. State, 291 So.2d 187 (Miss. 1974).

¶8The appellant argues, however, that the uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice is looked on with suspicion, [we so held in Moore, supra] and, therefore, defendant should have been granted Instruction No. 13 so stating. This instruction was properly refused for several reasons. First, instructions on the personal interest of a witness or on the weight of the testimony are prohibited by statute. Bryson v. State, 291 So.2d 693 (Miss. 1974). Second, the granting of a cautionary instruction as to the testimony of an accomplice is discretionary with the trial judge and is not the subject of error on appeal to this Court. Wellborn v. State, 140 Miss. 640, 105 So. 769 (1925); Cheatham v. State, 67 Miss. 335, 7 So. 204 (1890).

¶9The court was correct in denying Instruction No. 17. This instruction is another of the "false in part, false in all" [falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus] instructions on the weight to be given to the testimony of a witness. We have condemned this instruction so often that we hope it should be plain to all that the instruction is not proper. Butler v. State, 245 So.2d 605 (Miss. 1971).

¶10We do not find a reversible error among the other alleged errors argued by the appellants.

¶11The judgment of the trial court is therefore affirmed.

¶12Affirmed.

¶13GILLESPIE, C.J., and PATTERSON, INZER, SMITH, ROBERTSON and WALKER, JJ., concur.

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