Court Opinion

ID: 9825561
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 13:23:40.422642+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:41:00.074575
License: Public Domain

On Rehearing.
The Attorney General, on behalf of the state, makes application for rehearing in this cause, and urges the materiality of statements (1) and (2) referred to in the opinion, A further examination of the evidence in this case discloses that none of the facts constituting the res gestee in the Walter Holmes case, tending to establish the corpus delicti of that case, was sworn to by any of the witnesses on the trial of said case except the-alleged injured party Aubrey Oden, and it also appears that his entire testimony in this connection is without corroboration of any character. At the time of the alleged commission of the offense charged, the record shows that no one was present except Oden, Holmes, Pressley, and one Frank Maddox. Each of the last three witnesses all testified:
“That Pressley did not arrest and detain said Aubrey Oden, that he did not represent himself to be Mathews and High Sheriff; and that said Walter Holmes did not take hold of the said Aubrey Oden.”
[5] And the only witness who testified that these things did occur was the man Aubrey Oden. The alleged difficulty between Holmes and Oden, if it occurred at all, took place in the morning of the dáy in question, and across the railroad from Al Pichter’s store in the city of Cullman. This being the time and place of the alleged difficulty out of which the prosecution against Walter Holmes for assault and battery grew, the facts and circumstances which happened at that time and place constituted the res gestae of the offense in the Holmes case. As before stated, every person present at that time testified positively that the alleged statements (1), (2), and (3), above referred to, did not occur; Oden only, and without corroboration as to either statement, testified to the contrary. The only corroboration of Oden as to any of the statements relate to statement (1), “that he did not arrest and detain Aubrey Oden,” and as shown by this record this corroboration is by the testimony of witnesses Felix Gay and Lonnie Oden, a cousin and brother, respectively, of Aubrey Oden. These two witnesses testified that at 3 o’clock in the afternoon of that day, at Stifelmeyer’s store, several hours after the alleged difficulty, and at a different place in the city of Cullman, they heard Pressley tell Lonnie Oden “that he had Aubrey Oden under arrest.” The contention of the Attorney General that the testimony of these witnesses relate to the res gestee of the offense is without merit; it affirmatively appearing to the contrary.
Nor can we accord to the correctness of the insistence of the Attorney General that on a trial for perjury in cases of homicide, un*44der this opinion, the evidence could be restricted as to whether defendant fired the shot or struck the blow. In homicide cases the scope of inquiry is much greater than in cases of assault and battery, for the question of premeditation, deliberation, willfulness, and whether the act was malicious, all enter in order to determine the degree of guilt. Moreover, the rule of evidence relating to self-defense differs materially in a homicide case from that of an assault and battery. It necessarily follows that on a trial for an unlawful homicide the material inquiry would necessarily extend to much greater limits than that of an assault and battery; the material inquiry being as stated in the opinion, Did the accused assault or assault and beat the person named?
We adhere to the opinion in this case, and reaffirm that the material testimony of the principal witness Aubrey Oden is without corroboration of any character, and therefore the charge of perjury here complained of cannot be sustained under the evidence as disclosed by the record.
Application overruled.