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63 Ala. 178

Alston v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided December 15, 1879

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1879-12-15

From the Circuit Court of Sumter., Tried before the Horn-Wm. S. Mudd¡ The prisoner in this case was indicted in Octobei*, 1879, for the murder of John W. Pierce in 1868. He pleaded not guilty to the indictment, and was tried on that plea; was found guilty of murder in the first degree, and sentenced to the penitentiary for life.

Relies on Levison v. State · Smith v. State · Hudson v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1879-12-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 12 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 1953

11 state decisions

60187918801890190019101920193019401950decided

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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BRIOKELL, O. J.

¶1After a careful examination of the record, we find the indictment sufficient, and the proceedings were in all respects conducted in strict conformity to the modes prescribed by law. The question presented by the' bill of exceptions is the only matter to which our attention has been directed by counsel; and that must be regarded as settled adversely to the prisoner. — Smith v. The State, 9 Ala. 990; Levison v. State, 54 Ala. 527; Hudson v. State, 61 Ala. 333. A very large latitude was allowed the prisoner, in receiving evidence of the motive of another to commit the crime with which he was charged, and of his evasion of justice. Threats of such person to take the life of the deceased were, at best, hearsay only, and too remote from the inquiry before the jury to have been received.

¶2We find no error in the record, and the judgment must be affirmed.

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