Case Name: MOODY v. THE STATE
Court: Supreme Court of Georgia
Jurisdiction: Georgia
Decision Date: 1901-12-19
Citations: 114 Ga. 449
Docket Number: 
Parties: MOODY v. THE STATE.
Judges: All the Justices concurring, except Little, J., absent.
Reporter: Georgia Reports
Volume: 114
Pages: 449–450

Head Matter:
MOODY v. THE STATE.
1. When in a close case the defense of alibi is set up and sustained by evidence, failure to charge upon the law of alibi is cause for a new trial.
2. It is also in such a case cause for a new trial that the judge, after referring in his charge to circumstances disclosed by the evidence which bore against the accused, added the words : “You are to consider all these things, gentlemen, and give them weight as sensible men.”
Argued December 16,
Decided December 19, 1901.
Indictment for robbery. Before Judge Janes. Polk superior court. October 17, 1901.
Bunn & Trawick and Sanders & Davis, for plaintiff in error.
W. T. Roberts, solicitor-general, contra.

Opinion:
Lumpkin, P. J.
1. This case, as to the first point ruled above, is directly within the principle laid down in Fletcher v. State, 85 Ga. 666.
2. The charge dealt within the second headnote was obviously erroneous. Whether or not given circumstances are entitled to any weight is purely a matter for the jury. ' As the judge instructed the jury that they must give weight to certain circumstances, and as the same tended to show the guilt of the accused, the charge was in this respect necessarily prejudicial to him.
Judgment reversed.
All the Justices concurring, except Little, J., absent.