(Download) "Matchett v. State" by Supreme Court of Georgia " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Matchett v. State
- Author : Supreme Court of Georgia
- Release Date : January 05, 1988
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 51 KB
Description
Benjamin F. Matchett was convicted by a jury and received a life sentence for the murder of his son, Tony Copeland, twenty
years consecutive for each of two counts of aggravated assault, and twenty years consecutive for one count of aggravated assault
on a police officer. 1 He argues that a new trial should have been granted because the verdict is strongly against the
weight of the evidence, because the trial court allowed improper questioning of a witness by a juror and allowed the improper
introduction of evidence of the defendant's character, and because the trial court refused to charge on self-defense. The evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict, showed that on the afternoon of January 23, 1987,
the defendant, upset about his girl friend, visited the victim and the victim's girl friend at her home. During the course
of the afternoon, the three engaged in the consumption of alcohol and the defendant eventually became drunk. The victim and
his girl friend were attempting to take the defendant home when they encountered the girl friend's son, Paul Stewart, and
Stewart's friend, Calvin Harris. The defendant got into an argument with Harris and fired a pistol in the direction of Stewart
and Harris. When the victim attempted to stop the defendant from shooting again, the defendant said, "I'll kill you," fired
point-blank into the victim's head, and went home. Thereafter, the defendant aimed his pistol at the investigating officer
who had come to his home, but later surrendered the pistol to the officer. The medical and ballistics evidence indicated the
victim died several days later from a bullet to his head fired by the defendant's gun. The defendant testified that he fired
at Paul Stewart and Calvin Harris when the two threatened him, approaching him with their hands in their pockets, and that
his gun discharged accidentally, injuring the victim as he attempted to hand the gun to the victim.