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98 Ala. 10

Hodge v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided November 15, 1893

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1893-11-15

Feom: tbe Circuit Court of Escambia. Tried before the Hon. JOHN R. TysoN. The appellant was tried at the Spring Term 1893, upon an indictment charging him with the murder of Rose Stanback.

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“We are of the opinion that the fact that the dog, trained to track men, as shown in the testimony, was put on the tracks at the scene of the homicide, and, `taking the trail,' so to speak, went thence to defendant's house, where he, the defendant, is shown to have been that night after the killing, was competent to go to the jury for consideration by them, in connection with all the other evidence, as a circumstance tending to connect the defendant with the crime; and, of consequence, that the court committed no error in refusing to exclude it.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including State v. . Yearwood

Cited in Bouvier (1914)’s definition of “Foot-Prints”

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1893-11-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 23 later decisions — most recently January 2016

22 state decisions — followed in 13 states

801893190019101920193019401950196019701980199020002010decided

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 →

McCLELLAN, J.

¶1It is common knowledge that dogs may be trained to follow the tracks of a human being with considerable certainty and accuracy. The evidence in this case showed that a dog thus trained was within a very short time after the homicide put upon the tracks of the person toward whom all the circumstances strongly pointed as the guilty agent, and that the dog as if following these tracks or “trailing” went to the house of the defendant. It was also in evidence, by several witnesses, that the tracks found at the *12scene of the homicide were followed by them thence to the house of the defendant, being measured at various points along the route, and otherwise, at each of such points, identified as being made by the same shoes as were the tracks at the place of the murder; and that the route thus traced by them was precisely that taken by the dog throughout. On this state of case, we are of the opinion that the fact that the dog, trained to track men as shown in the testimony was put on the tracks at the scene of the homicide and, “taking the trail” so to speak, went thence to defendant’s house, where he, the defendant, is shown to have been that night after the killing, was competent to go to the jury for consideration by them, in connection with all the other evidence, as a circumstance tending to connect the defendant with the crime; and, of consequence that the court committed no error in refusing to exclude it.

¶2The ruling of the court on this point is the subject-matter of the only exception reserved. This being without merit, the judgment must be affirmed; and as affirmed, the sheriff of Escambia county will execute the sentence of death imposed thereunder as prescribed by law, on Friday, July 7th, 1893.

¶3Affirmed.

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