Haywood v. State

Citations

• 90 Miss. 461
• 43 So. 614

Syllabus

<p>1. Criminal Law and Procedure. Murder. Evidence.</p> <p>Where the accused in a prosecution for murder resting entirely on circumstantial evidence has introduced testimony which would prove an alibi, if credited, it is error not to admit evidence to the effect that disreputable characters in whose company the deceased had been on the night of his death left the state on the following day.</p> <p>2. Same. Circumstantial evidence. Instruction.</p> <p>Circumstantial evidence is inferior to the testimony of eyewitnesses, and it is error to instruct in a murder trial, where the evidence for the defense would prove an alibi, if credited, that it is as good as any other kind of evidence and that whenever it generates full conviction of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, the jury should act on such evidence as readily as on any other.</p>