Title: Ex Parte Traweek
Citation: 380 So. 2d 958
Docket Number: N/A
State: Alabama
Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court
Date: December 7, 1979

380 So. 2d 958 (1979)
Ex parte William Coy TRAWEEK.
(In re: William Coy Traweek v. State of Alabama)
No. 78-599.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
December 7, 1979.
Walter P. Crownover of Crownover &amp; Mountain, Tuscaloosa, for petitioner.
Charles A. Graddick, Atty. Gen. and C. Lawson Little, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State, respondent.
TORBERT, Chief Justice.
This petition for writ of certiorari to the Court of Criminal Appeals seeks review of petitioner's conviction of first degree murder in the circuit court of Tuscaloosa County on February 18, 1978. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the judgment on May 1, 1979, and overruled the timely application for rehearing on May 22, 1979.
Petitioner asserts that the decision of the Court of Criminal Appeals below is in conflict with the decision of this court in Hunter v. State, 295 Ala. 180, 325 So. 2d 921 (1975). We agree and reverse and remand.
The facts as contained in the opinion of the Court of Criminal Appeals are as follows:
On January 17, 1977, the appellant Traweek and two of his friends drove around in appellant's truck drinking vodka and looking for appellant's deer dogs. They stopped by the house of the deceased, Smith, and asked him to join them. When Smith told Traweek that he had to go to work, Traweek returned to his truck and spun gravel as he left Smith's driveway. Smith got in his car, pursued and overtook Traweek's truck and a heated argument ensued. Smith was holding a pocket knife throughout the argument. Traweek testified that he had seen "the print of a pistol in [the deceased's] pocket" and that "he [the deceased] told me he had a pistol." Traweek also testified that he had tried to leave and the deceased told him: "If you get in your... truck, I will blow your head off." Traweek ran to his truck, got his gun and fired three blasts into the deceased. The Court of Criminal Appeals held that the Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court was not in error in refusing defendant's requested jury charge number 20, which reads as follows:
The rationale of the Court of Criminal Appeals in affirming the trial court is found in the following language from that court's opinion:
During oral argument of this case, as well as in briefs, the state advanced the same reasoning as that expressed by the Court of Criminal Appeals, supra, i. e., Hunter, supra, is inapplicable to the instant case because in Hunter an eyewitness, other than the accused, presented evidence that the deceased had a gun and was making threats.
To the extent that the opinion of the Court of Criminal Appeals holds that in order for the defendant in a murder trial to be entitled to a jury charge on self defense, EVIDENCE MUST BE PRESENTED BY SOMEONE OTHER THAN THE ACCUSED tending to show that the defendant was in reasonable apprehension of grievous bodily harm from the decedent, that opinion is in error.
In Hunter v. State, supra, the facts of which are strikingly similar to the facts in the instant case, this court held:
Hunter, 295 Ala. at 184, 325 So. 2d  at 925 (emphasis added).
As pointed out by the dissenting opinion below of Judge Bowen joined by Judge Bookout:
Traweek v. State, 380 So. 2d 946 (Ala.Cr. App.1979).
We hold that the Court of Criminal Appeals erred in affirming the decision of the Circuit Court of Tuscaloosa County to refuse to give requested charge number 20 on self defense because the only evidence supporting that charge was produced by the defendant. We hold, in accord with Hunter, supra, that a charge which is supported by evidence must be given whether the evidence which supports the charge is produced by the defendant or some third party.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
All the Justices concur.