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39 Ala. App. 422

Holmes v. State

Alabama Court of Appeals

Decided April 29, 1958

Alabama Court of Appeals · decided 1958-04-29

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““Where one is imprisoned by virtue of an indictment he is presumed to be guilty in the highest degree, and to be entitled to bail as of right, must overcome this presumption by proof. * * ” Citing cases.”

quoted by 2 later decisions, including Perdue v. State, Wilbanks v. State

“In view of the presumption created by the indictment, and the further presumption to be accorded the conclusion of the trial judge who saw and heard the witnesses, we are unwilling to disturb his action in the premises.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 690 So. 2d 537 - Ex Parte Landers

Relies on 24 Ala. App. 377 - Deaver v. State · 30 Ala. App. 226 - Rogers v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1958-04-29

How this case has been cited

Cited by 12 later decisions — most recently September 2002

12 state decisions

40195819601970198019902000decided

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 →

HARWOOD, Presiding Judge.

¶1This is an appeal from an order of the Hon. T. Werth Thagard, Judge of the Second Judicial Circuit, denying appellant’s petition for bail in a habeas corpus proceedings.

¶2In the proceedings below the State offered in evidence the indictment against the petitioner, and rested.

¶3The indictment is in four counts and charges appellant with murder in the first degree, the means of the killing, being alleged in the respective counts as by hitting with his fist, or with a blunt instrument, or by kicking with his foot, or feet.

¶4The evidence presented below by the appellant was directed chiefly toward showing that the appellant was drunk when relatives and neighbors arrived at his home after the death of appellant’s wife. How long the deceased had been dead is not clearly shown by the evidence.

¶5These witnesses testified to the effect that the deceased was lying on the floor of the kitchen, between a table and a heater. Her left cheek was bruised and swollen, and her eye was almost swollen closed. There was some bleeding from her mouth, as though her lips had been cut.

¶6No marks were observed on appellant’s face or hands.

¶7The appellant did not testify.

¶8Where one is imprisoned by virtue of an indictment he is presumed to be guilty in the highest degree, and to be entitled to bail as of right, must overcome this presumption by proof. Rogers v. State, 30 Ala.App. 226, 4 So.2d 266; Deaver v. State, 24 Ala.App. 377, 135 So. 604.

¶9In view of the presumption created by the indictment, and the further presumption to be accorded the conclusion of the trial judge who saw and heard the witnesses, we are unwilling to disturb his action in the premises.

¶10Affirmed.

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