Court Opinion

ID: 9567233
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:51:05.576717+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:00:27.217135
License: Public Domain

Deen, Judge,
concurring specially. The corroboration test is that the circumstances, independent of the testimony of the accomplice, lead to the inference that the defendant is guilty. Dennis v. State, 201 Ga. 53 (38 SE2d 832). If we assume that instead of the defendant admitting he went to Hampton we had the testimony of, say, the policemen both men testified they saw, and the policemen said they saw Pitts and Summerville riding in the car, and this was shortly before the burglary, and Summerville admitted he burglarized the store, this would be sufficient corroboration to support a guilty verdict as to Pitts.
Instead of a third person placing him near the scene, Pitts places himself near the scene with intent to burglarize. He then says that after seeing the policemen the three conspirators drove to the edge of town and there he changed his mind, a fight occurred, and they ejected him from the car. If the defendant had sworn to this state of facts, I might be inclined to suggest that this explanation, like that of one who admits a homicide based on an explanation which exonorates him, is entitled to have the admission considered only in connection with the whole explanation. But this defendant made an unsworn statement, which entitles the jury to accept it in part and reject it in part. It "shall have such force only as the jury may think right to give it.” Code Ann. § 38-415. Obviously they believed he was with Summerville and did not believe he was put out of the car before *439Summerville stole the drugs. I believe this sufficient corroboration to justify an affirmance.