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58 Ala. 335

Bowles v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided December 15, 1877

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1877-12-15

Tried before Hon. O. J. Semmes. Tbe appellant, Bowles, was convicted of tbe murder of Albert Smith, and sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary for life. Tbe evidence shows tbat Bowles lived some seven miles from tbe city of Mobile, and on the morning of tbe shooting, tbe deceased and one or two other persons passed by the bouse in which appellant, Bowles, lived, on their way to Mobile, as one of these persons bad promised to call Bowles as they went by.

Relies on Eiland v. State · People v. Stanley · Franklin v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1877-12-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 41 later decisions — most recently May 1998 · most notably Smith v. State (1916), Ross v. State (1883)

39 state decisions

601877188018901900191019201930194019501960197019801990decided

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.

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BRICKiELL, O. J.

¶1All evasions, or attempts to evade justice, by a person suspected or charged with crime, are circumstances from which a consciousness of guilt may be inferred, if connected with other criminating facts. Of themselves, they may not warrant a conviction, but they are relevant as evidence, and tbe weight to which they are entitled, it is the province of the jury to determine; under proper instructions from the court. People v. Stanley, 47 Cal. 113; (S. C.); 2 Green’s Or. Rep. 437; Wharton on Homicide, § 710; Burrill on Oir. Ev. § 22, 469. Plight, for which no proper motive can be assigned, and which remains unexplained, is a circumstance all authorities agree it is proper to submit to the jury, in connection with other evidence tending to show tbe guilt óf tbe accused. In tbe old common law, the rule which passed into a maxim, was, that flight was equivalent to a confession of guilt: fatetur facinus qui judicium fugit. At tbe present day it is regarded as a mere criminative circumstance, indicative of a consciousness of guilt, and of an attempt to evade justice, wbicb is subject to infirmative considerations that may deprive it of all force. Tbe unfavorable inference against tbe prisoner would be lessened if be voluntarily returned and surrendered himself to answer the accusation. Whether its force, as a criminative fact, is increased by proof that his return was compulsory under the process of the law, and that tbe flight was beyond the jurisdiction of tbe State, it is for tbe jury to determine. We think it permissible to prove the fact of flight, and all the facts connected with it, either to increase or diminish the probative force of the fact itself. The requisition of the governor for tbe arrest and surrender of tbe prisoner, was admitted by tbe City Court, for tbe sole purpose of showing tbe authority *339under which he was arrested in Mississippi. For that purpose it was admissible in the view we have taken.

¶22. There was no error in the refusal of the charges requested by the prisoner. Pritchett v. State, 22 Ala. 39; Franklin v. State, 29 Ala. 14; Eiland v. State, 52 Ala. 322; McAllister v. State, 12 Ala. 434; Morea v. State, 2 Ala. 275; Parsons v. State, 21 Ala. 300.

¶3We find no error in the record, and the judgment must be affirmed.

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