Court Opinion

ID: 9825533
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 13:18:21.488861+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:40:57.090912
License: Public Domain

On Rehearing.
On cross-examination of defendant the solicitor was allowed to ask this question: “Were you living at the same place at the time they went there and found all that whisky in your barn?” This question was objected to, objection was overruled, and exception reserved. The solicitor was also allowed to ask defendant on cross-examination: “At the time you shot your brother down there, were you living” (at the same place). Objection and exception to this question was taken. The court overruled the objection on the theory that the evidence tended to fix time and place of the offense for which the defendant was being here prosecuted. -Both of these questions assumed as proven facts irrelevant to this issue, and facts which, if true, could only have the effect of prejudicing the defendant before the jury trying his case. It said to the jury: Whether guilty here or not, this defendant at one time shot his own brother, and he was also at another time in possession of a quantity of liquor. The method of examination was manifestly unfair, and should not be allowed. The form of the questions asked had the effect of getting into the *421evidence the fact that defendant had shot his brother, and that at another time defendant had been in possession of prohibited liquors. The actions of the court in overruling the objections were errors. Vickers v. State, 18 Ala. App. 282, 91 So. 502; Conway v. State, 18 Ala. App. 156, 90 So. 46; Lowery v. State, ante, p. 852, 108 So. 351.
There is a line of eases which hold that, where motion to exclude the answer to an illegal question is not made, the error of the court in overruling the objection to the question is waived. Haney v. State, 20 Ala. App. 236, 101 So. 533. But this rule does not obtain where the answer is strictly responsive to the question and the ruling of the court on the propriety of the question necessarily ruled on the admissibility of a responsive answer thereto as evidence. Troy Lbr. & Con. Co. v. Boswell, 186 Ala. 409, 65 So. 141.
The opinion is extended, application for rehearing is granted, and the judgment of the lower court is reversed, and the cause is remanded. .