Court Opinion

ID: 9585835
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:04:17.947491+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:24:15.437118
License: Public Domain

*698Almand, Justice,
dissenting. I dissent from the ruling in headnote 2 and the corresponding division of the opinion, and from the judgment of reversal. In Gambo v. Dugas & Son, 145 Ga. 614 (89 S. E. 679), after the jury had the case under consideration, the court in its recharge to the jury stated: “It is your duty to agree on a verdict in this case. The case has been fully and completely tried. You are just as competent as any jury would be of disposing of it. I say to you, gentlemen, it is no credit to a juror to stand out, in a pure spirit of stubbornness, because he has taken a position. It is the duty of every juror to consult with every other juror and reach a mutual understanding in the case.” It was held that this charge pressed the jury to the utmost line permissible, and to the very verge of error, and that though it was better for the trial judge to be more conservative in such matters, under the facts of the case and under former rulings of this court, the recharge did not necessitate a reversal. In Golatt v. State, 130 Ga. 18 (60 S. E. 107), which was a capital case, an instruction to the jury that no juror should “stick out” in a spirit of stubbornness, that it was no credit to a juror to do that, was held not to be ground for a new trial. In Hyde v. State, 196 Ga. 475, where the defendant had been convicted without a recommendation to mercy, where the jury after deliberating on the case reported that they stood numerically 10 to 2, the court charged the jury that “a verdict is the combined judgment of twelve; it is not a verdict of ten, or two men or four men.” In the instant case the evidence overwhelmingly supports the verdict of guilty, and in view of previous rulings of the court, I am of the opinion that this recharge did not constitute reversible error.
I am authorized to state that Justice Candler concurs in this dissent.