Moughon v. State
Supreme Court of Georgia
Criminal law. Evidence. Charge of court. Before Judge "Wright. Dougherty Superior Court. April Term, 1876. Moughon was placed upon trial for the offense of assault with intent to murder, alleged to have been committed upon the person of one Hopkins Tillory, on August 10th, 1875. The defendant pleaded not guilty.
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Criminal law. Evidence. Charge of court. Before Judge "Wright. Dougherty Superior Court. April Term, 1876. Moughon was placed upon trial for the offense of assault with intent to murder, alleged to have been committed upon the person of one Hopkins Tillory, on August 10th, 1875. The defendant pleaded not guilty. The evidence showed that Tillory was shot about eight o’clock at night, whilst lying upon the couch in the passage .of his dwelling-house, by some unknown person; that he was struck by some fourteen squirrel shot. The circumstances which pointed to the defendant as the perpetrator of…
1Opinion of the Court
Bleckley, Judge.
In trying a case depending upon circumstantial evidence, very few abstract principles should be given to the jury. Left to exercise their common-sense in their own way, the jury will generally determine correctly what is well proved, and what lacks further support. Furnished with a superfluity of rules, their attention is distracted, and the proffered help only obstructs. The better practice is, to decline charging refined speculations, and give only coarse, sharp-cut law. What shall come to the jury as evidence, is for the court. What it is worth when it arrives, is for the…
2Cited by26 opinions
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- Brown v. StateMississippi Supreme Court · 1911
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