Vowell v. State

Deen, Presiding Judge.

Appellant Vowell was convicted by a Douglas County jury of the offense of escape from lawful confinement. Evidence of an escape from Vowell’s cell was discovered by jail personnel, and appellant and another escapee were apprehended in an Atlanta motel. Vowell contended at trial that he was coerced into escaping by the threats of a fellow escapee who had held a knife at his throat. On appeal Vowell enumerates as error the trial court’s failure to instruct the jury on two points: (1) that the state had the burden of proving an absence of coercion, and (2) that the evidence…