Court Opinion

ID: 9824825
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 11:31:18.765819+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:40:09.378701
License: Public Domain

On Rehearing.
The ruling of the court in excluding testimony offered by defendant is referable only to that testimony designated in the original opinion as (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), and does not refer to the testimony of defendant as to what was said by him and the deceased at the time of the fatal shooting. The defendant in testifying was allowed, without objection, to testify as to everything said and done by himself and deceased just prior to and at the time of the difficulty, wherein defendant killed his son. Appellant’s counsel have cited numbers of cases supporting, the contention that statements of parties to a difficulty which are a part of the res gestas or relate thereto shedding light on the transaction are admissible in evidence. These statements were allowed in this case. But the fact, if it be a fact, that the son had taken some money from the father on the night preceding, would not authorize the father to kill the son or to approach him with a gun for the purpose of demanding its return.
 Appellant’s counsel devotes much of his brief to a discussion of the following charge refused by the court, to wit: “If the jury are reasonably satisfied from the evidence that at the time defendant did the acts which he did do in shooting and killing and in connection with the shooting and killing of Walter French, that his mind was diseased from alcoholism to the extent of rendering him wholly or partly insane, and to such extent as that he was incapable of committing mentally voluntary or intentional homicide, then he cannot be convicted of any offense higher than manslaughter in the second degree.” We are not interested in a critical analysis or an academic discussion of the above and similar charges. Suffice it to say that, since the case of Parsons v. State, 81 Ala. 577, 2 So. 854, 60 Am. Rep. 193, the law of insanity, as applied to crime, has been perfectly clear and would receive no additional clarity by incorporating a further discussion into the body of our decisions. The. trial court, taking as a guide the decision in the Parsons Case, clearjy and elaborately defined insanity as a defense to crime. If, therefore, the charge requested and refused is in conflict with the court’s oral charge, the written requested charge was erroneous. If, on the other hand, the charge was not in conflict, then it is fully covered. If, we may add, the defendant is legally insane, as defined by our decisions, and the act was the result of such mental condition, he could not be convicted of any crime.
The appellant contends that the trial court erred to a reversal in what here follows:
“Counsel for defendant then asked the witness this question:
“ ‘Doctor, if it is true that the defendant is now between sixty-four and sixty-five years of age, and if there is thirty-one years, difference between his age and his present wife’s age, and if they have been married for about fourteen years, a sufficient length of time to have a child now about thirteen years of age, and they have lived the usual relations between husband and wife for that period - of *57time, is it or not a fact that the effect of the marital relations between a man and his wife, when the man is so situated, who also is an habitue of drink, does not that relationship constitute a drain upon the nervous system in such a way as to add to the evil effects of whisky?’
“The state objected to the question. The court sustained the objection, and to its action in so doing, defendant duly and legally excepted.
“Counsel for defendant then asked the witness this question:
“ ‘And will a man in that condition, under those circumstances, degenerate more rapidly under the influence of whisky than he would otherwise?’
“The state objected to the question; the court sustained the objection, and to its action in so doing, defendant duly and legally excepted.
“Counsel for defendant then stated to the court that the witness, if permitted to do so, would answer these questions in the affirmative.
“Counsel for defendant then asked the witness this question:
“ ‘And is it not a fact, known to your science, that if there is a drink habit in the life of the old man that he hastens the destruction of mind and body by living in the marital relation with a young and vigorous woman?’
“The state objected to the question. The court sustained the objection, and to its action in so doing, defendant duly and legally excepted.
“The defendant then offered to prove, in this connection, that the wife is about thirty-one years younger than the husband, and that she is a vigorous woman within the bearing age; that she has a woman’s nubility, is young, healthy and vigorous, and that the marital relation, under such circumstances, hastens the death of a man and weakens his powers.
“The state objected to the proof thus offered to be made, the court sustained the objection and expressly directed the jury that it was not testimony and was not for their consideration; to which ruling of the court defendant duly and legally excepted.”
Counsel cites no authority sustaining the above contention, but relies on logic and what he claims is common knowledge. There is no such common knowledge as claimed by appellant. On the contrary, the usual relations between husband and wife are conducive to normalcy, rather than insanity. Such is the rule laid down in Herzog Med. Jur. 559. Says this writer: “Natural gratification of sex want being necessary for an absolutely healthy state of mind and body, * * * unrecognized sex starvation simulates organic disease, especially .in females, although not infrequently in males. After the age of puberty no distinction is made and the natural coitus between male and female produces no evil effect on the physical or mental and the fact that the male is thirty years the senior of the female does not change the rule. Insanity being an abnormal condition of the mind, it is the unnatural and abnormal acts of the defendant which tend to prove insanity at the time of the crime which are admissible in evidence and the normal and natural acts are admissible to prove sanity. Insanity itself is a condition and not a thing and is not therefore susceptible of the usual means of proof, therefore the evidence must take a wide range for which no ironclad rule can be laid down, but any hypothetical question is objectionable where it assumes a statement of facts on which no medical or expert opinion should be based.” Smoot Law of Insanity 511, par. 571.
Taking this entire record, which we have read and re-read, the conclusion reached by the court is that, if minor errors exist, they were not such as to injuriously affect defendant’s rights. The defendant has had what appears to be a fair and an impartial trial according to the forms of law, and the application for rehearing is overruled.
Opinion extended. Application overruled.