Court Opinion

ID: 9567629
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:56:15.345304+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:00:44.044999
License: Public Domain

Evans, Judge,
concurring specially.
I concur in the majority opinion and add the following: It appears that the trial judge participated with *57the district attorney in considerable cross examination of the defendant. A pair of boots had been found on the roof of the house alleged to have been burglarized. Although there is no obligation on a defendant to aid the prosecutor to incriminate himself by fitting his feet into tracks left at the scene (Day v. State, 63 Ga. 667, 668 (2); Elder v. State, 143 Ga. 363 (1) (85 SE 97)), and although here the boots had not been introduced into evidence, the trial judge, with leading questions, after holding it was a proper subject for cross examination, sought to secure an answer from the witness that the boots fitted him, as follows: Q. (by the court) "They fit good, don’t they?” A. (by defendant) "No, they’re too big for me.” There was no further effort to connect the defendant with the boots. This fact alone is sufficient to show that someone other than defendant had left boots in an unusual place, to wit, on top of the burglarized house, and serves to negate the proof of defendant’s guilt.