Smith v. State
Supreme Court of Georgia
Criminal law. New trial. Before Judge Hillyer. Fulton Superior Court. October Term, 1878. Smith was placed on trial for the murder of Skinner, alleged to have been committed on the fourth of July, 1878. Fie pleaded not guilty. The evidence was circumstantial.
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Criminal law. New trial. Before Judge Hillyer. Fulton Superior Court. October Term, 1878. Smith was placed on trial for the murder of Skinner, alleged to have been committed on the fourth of July, 1878. Fie pleaded not guilty. The evidence was circumstantial. The case made, for the state was, in brief, this: A party of seventy-five to eighty persons were congregated on the evening and night of July 4th, 1878, at Silver Spring, a place of public resort near the termination of the Peachtree street-ear line, leading from the city of Atlanta to Ponce de Leon spring. Silver Spring was composed of…
1Opinion of the Court
Bleckley, Justice.
That there is some degree of doubt and obscurity as to who was the perpetrator of this homicide is not to be denied. It is a case on which earnest, thoughtful minds, honestly seeking after truth, might differ. The evidence is not plainly insufficient to sustain the verdict, and being circumstantial, it was, under the law, for the reasoning powers of a jury, rather than for those of a reviewing court, to work out the conclusion. The weighing of such evidence, especially where it is conflicting, and some of it of doubtful credibility, can be best done by a jury of the…
2Cited by7 opinions
- State v. PomeroyOregon Supreme Court · 1896
- Barnes v. StateCourt of Appeals of Georgia · 1985
- Booker v. StateCourt of Appeals of Georgia · 1934
- Barnes v. StateCourt of Appeals of Georgia · 1985
- Patton v. StateSupreme Court of Georgia · 1903
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