Baker v. State

Accusation of stabbing. Before Judge Hodges. City court of Macon. December 10, 1904. The accusation charged that William Baker did “unlawfully make an assault upon Cleve Johnson and with a certain knife did cut and stab said Cleve Johnson not in self-defense and not under any other circumstances of justification.” There, was a verdictj of guilty, and an exception to the overruling of a motion for a new trial. The ground of the motion was that it did not appear from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the cut or stab was made, as alleged, with a knife. On this point the testimony was as follows (in addition to the exhibition to the jury of the wound on Cleve Johnson’s arm, it being a ragged scar about an inch in length on the left forearm). Johnson testified: “ Baker' came running towards me with his hand drawn back, and cut me in the arm. . . I don’t know what he cut me with; whether it was a knife or a razor.” Another witness testified: “ I saw him when he was cut. . . Baker cut him with something on the arm. I don’t know whether it was a razor or a knife. I saw only the blade; it was about one and a.half inches long. . . I saw him with his hand raised. I could not see whether it was a razor or a knife in his hand.”