Mrs. Rowland, sixty-two years old, and very deaf, was murdered at her home in Bibb county,on the morning of December 5,1901. She was found lying in the yard near the back door, with two fatal wounds in her head, which appeared as if made with an ax or other like instrument, and a bruise over her eye. Her husband and son had gone to work that morning, and she had been left alone. The ground near where she was found lying was somewhat torn up, as if there had been a struggle. The accused was seen on the same morning, between a quarter and a half mile from the Rowland house,
After verdict of guilty, a motion for new trial was overruled, and the accused excepted. The motion contains the following grounds:
2. Bennett and Amerson arrested the accused. When they saw him they went rapidly to him, one of them leveled a firearm and. told him to throw up his hands, and they thereupon seized him and put on handcuffs. He asked what they wanted him for, and what they were going to do with him. He was answered, “ Take-you to Macon.” He asked, “What for?” Bennett replied, “ You. need not talk; you know what we want you for.” He said, “ If I tell you the truth about it, you won’t let the people in south Macon bother me, will you?” Bennett answered, “No, if you don’t or do tell the truth, it is my duty; I am going to take you to jail. I have not got any promises to make to you, and I am going to-take you to jail.” Bennett testified: “He asked me the second time the same thing again —if I would tell him I would not let the people in south Macon hurt him if he told me; and I told him the-second time, if he did not tell me a thing I was going to take him on. He did not say anything about lynch; he said he did not want-the people in south Macon to get hold of him. I told him, if he-told me or didn’t tell me, I would keep them from bothering him.” The accused thereupon made a statement in the nature of a confession, in substance the same as heretofore reported. Error was assigned upon the overruling of counsel’s objection that the confession, under the circumstances, was made in the hope of benefit, and therefore should be excluded from evidence.
3. The court charged the jury : “ In determining the question as-to whether or not a confession is admissible as evidence in the case, the law puts upon the presiding judge the duty of determining, by a preliminary investigation of the question of whether or not apparently under the evidence, whether preliminarily under the evidence, that confession was made under such circumstances as authorized it to go to the jury to be considered by them as testimony
4-6. The court refused requests to charge as follows:
“ It is incumbent upon the State to show beyond a reasonable doubt that the confessions relied upon to convict were made voluntarily and without being induced by another by the slightest hope of benefit or remotest fear of injury; and if not so proved, you should reject the confession.”
“Each and every juror should believe for himself that the defendant has been shown to be guilty under the evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, before he should agree to a verdict of guilty. If any member of the jury has such reasonable doubt, as hereinbefore explained to you, of the guilt of the defendant, he should not agree to a verdict of guilty.”
“ All the phases of the case which in láw is required to be proved should each and all be proved beyond a reasonable doubt; and if the State fails to prove any one of said necessary phases beyond a reasonable doubt, then the jury should acquit.” '
7. The court charged: “ It is the duty of the jury to reconcile the testimony of the witnesses who have testified in the case, so as to impute perjury to no witness.” Error was assigned, in that the court made it the absolute duty of the jury to reconcile the testimony and not to impute perjury, whether they could do so or not. This instruction was followed in the charge by these words: “ If you find a conflict in the testimony between the testimony of the witnesses who have testified in the case, then it is your duty to believe that witness or those witnesses that you think best entitled to belief, looking to their manner on the stand, their relation to the
8. Error in refusing a proper request to charge on the law of manslaughter, in the words of the Penal Code, § 64. Defendant contends that, under the confessions in evidence, if he struck the blows that killed the deceased, he did so in a panic of fright, that there was no intent to take human life, and that he was not guilty of murder; and this issue ought to have been presented to the jury.
9. Verdict contrary to law and evidence.