Court Rulings

<p>From: the circuit court of Pike county.</p> <p>Hon. Moyse H. Wilkinson, Judge.</p> <p>Johnson, the appellant, and three others, were indicted for the murder of Harriet Caston; there was a severance, and appellant was separately tried, convicted of the murder, and sentenced to suffer death, from which conviction and sentence he appealed to the supreme court.</p> <p>On the trial of the ease the state offered proof of alleged confessions made by appellant to certain private citizens, one of whom promised at the time to intercede with the judge in an effort to keep appellant from being hanged, and also told appellant that it would be better for him to confess, as it would go lighter with him if he told the truth. To all of which evidence the defendant, now appellant, objected, but the court below overruled the objection and permitted the evidence to be introduced, and defendant duly excepted. The refusal of the charge asked by appellant, quoted in the opinion of the court, was assigned for error in appellant’s motion for a new trial, as was the above rulings on the evidence, and both were again assigned for error in the supreme court.</p> <p>The appellant is entitled to a reversal because the court admitted evidence over his objection, which was error. The purported confessions should not have been admitted in evidence. The record will clearly disclose the total, flagrant ineompetency of the alleged confessions, to which proper and legal objections and exceptions were taken. Williams v. State, 72 Miss., 117 (s.c., 16 South. Rep., 296) ; Ford v. State, 75 Miss., 101 (s.c., 21 South. Rep., 524) ; Rraughn v. Slate, 76 Miss., 574 (s.c., 25 South. Rep., 153); Hamilionv. Slate, 77 Miss., 675 ; Whitley v. Slate, 78 Miss., 255 ; Blalaclc v. State, 79 Miss., 517 (s.c., 31 South. Rep., 105) ; Ammons v. State, 80 Miss., 592 (s.c., 32 South. Rep., 9) ; Wright v. Slate, 82 Miss., 421; Macmasters v. Slate, 82 Miss., 459; Stanley v. Stale, 82 Miss., 498 (s.c., 34 South. Rep., 360).

<p>Appeal from the Common Pleas of Lebanon county.</p> <p>This was a proceeding in equity, founded on a bill filed January 4th 1862, by David Steinmetz and Henry Landis, administrators of Jacob Becker, deceased, against Jonathan Bender, sheriff of Lebanon county, and Jacob Witmer and other creditors of Henry Thoma, and against the said Henry Thoma.</p> <p>The bill set forth that Henry Thoma is the owner in foe of a tract of land of about forty acres, situate in Union township, Lebanon county, with a steam grist and saw mill thereon erected . — that there are liens upon said property, as follows, viz.: a dower of about $500 in favour of the widow of Abraham Wenger, deceased, being the first -lien upon said property, and two judgments in favour of complainants, administrators as aforesaid, for $5000, which are the next liens, that said property, being all the real estate of Henry Thoma, is not worth and would not bring so much as the amount of said liens with their interest, that Jacob Witmer and other execution-creditors are the owners of judgments against said Henry Thoma, the liens of which are subsequent to the dower and judgments in favour of complainants as aforesaid, that said Henry Thoma has no personal estate, the same having been levied upon and sold, and is wholly insolvent. That said steam grist and saw mill contained a steam engine, boilers, and other machinery necessarily connected and used together, essential to the working of the mills, and so annexed, fixed, and embedded in the structure of said mills as to be part of the freehold; that said Henry Thoma, acting in concert and collusion with Jacob Witmer and the other execution-creditors, defendants, and by their advice and instigation, and with intent to appropriate the real estate, the proper fund of your petitioners, administrators as aforesaid, for the payment of their judgments to the payment of the judgments of the said Jacob Witmer and other execution-creditors, which otherwise would not he paid