DuBose v. State

Indictment for Aiding 'an Escape. ,1; Aiding an escape-, secondary evidence of warrant. — On a trial for assisting prisoners to escape.from jail, the justice of the peace who issued the warrant upon which the prisoners were arrested, can not testify that lie issued such warrants unless a predicate 'for such secondary evidence is first laid ; the warrant itself or a certified copy of it should first be introduced in evidence, or the failure to do so should b'é fully accounted for, before secondary evidence of its issuance is admissible. ‘ • ' '

Appeal fromthe’County Court of Bibb. Tried before the Hon. N. H. Thompson. • The appellant was tried and convicted under an affidavit which charged that he “did cut and break into the jail at Blocton in which said jail one Will DuBose and Westley Seymour were lawfully confined by the sheriff of Bibb county, charged with misdemeanors and did thereby aid said Will DuBose and Westley Seymour to escape from such custody against the peace and dignity of the State of Alabama.” On the trial of the case, there was evidence introduced to show that Will DuBose and Westley Seymour were confined in the jail at Blocton, and that the defendant and one Glasscock broke open the j ail and allowed them to escape. The State introduced as a witness N. L. Wilson, who testified that he was the justice of the peace before whom the defendant had his trial for breaking the jail in Blocton; that he had issued warrants for Westley Seymour and Will DuBose, charging them- with misdemeanors, and that he placed the warrants in the hands of the deputy sheriff of Bibb county who arrested Seymour and DuBose and placed them in jail at Blocton. The defendant objected to the witness testifying that he had issued warrants for Westley Seymour and Will DuBose, because the warrants were the best evidence. The court overruled the objection, and the defendant duly excepted. It is unnecessary to set out in detail the facts pertaining to the other rulings of the court to which exceptions were reserved.