Griffin v. State

1. Under Code, § 27-1201, it is the duty of the trial judge, upon his own motion or upon it being shown at a hearing on a motion for change of venue “that there is probability or danger of lynching, or other violence,” to grant a change of venue. This provision is mandatory. See Johns v. State, 47 Ga. App. 58, 64 (169 S. E. 688); Graham v. State, 141 Ga. 812, 817 (82 S. E. 282). The evidence adduced upon the hearing of the motion in the present case was largely opinion evidence, without any specific facts or acts upon which to base the same, and it was denied by other and contradictory…