Tiller v. State

Lumpkin, Justice.

1. The rule that one on trial for a criminal offense is entitled to be personally present at every stage of the *431proceedings, is too well settled to require argument or the citation of authority. This rule, both in England and in this country, is so well recognized by the standard text-writers and by judicial decisions in an almost unbroken line of cases, that its existence cannot now be seriously called into question. It cannot be doubted that the argument of counsel is a stage of the proceedings, for the trial is not concluded until after the verdict has been received and…