Citation Numbers: 49 Ga. 451
Judges: Clark, Trippe
Filed Date: 10/15/1872
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 1/12/2023
This case is controlled by the two cases, John R. Johnson vs. The State, and Allen Stallings vs. The State, both decided at the January term, 1873. Each of those cases, as well as this, was a conviction on an indictment for arson, the burning of an occupied dwelling house. The verdicts in all three were guilty,'with a recommendation to the mercy of the Court.
This case falls within the rule held in Johnson vs. The State, and without repeating again what was said during the present year, in both of those cases, we pronounce that the Court erred in sentencing the defendant to be hung, under the verdict that was rendered.
In all such verdicts the Court should, before finally receiving them, cause the jury to correct them, so as to be in conformity with the law, either by amending the recommendation or by striking it out. And to this end, they, the juries, should be fully instructed as to what their power is in such eases.
Judgment reversed.