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- Title
Firearms Identification -- Powder Patterns: A Recent Decision.
- Abstract
The article cites a recent court decision in Rowe v. State, in Florida, which concerned a determination of whether or not an empty shell found at the scene of a homicide came from the deceased's shotgun or from the defendant's. Apparently no testimony regarding a comparison microscope test had been introduced at the trial, for it appears that an attempt was made to solve this problem by introducing the testimony of a sheriff who stated, in effect, that the shell was in a position different from where it would have been had been fired from the deceased's gun. But this testimony the appellate court held to be incompetent on the ground that the sheriff was unwarranted in assuming that at the time the shell was ejected the gun was in the same position as when the witness found it. Another point in this case involved an approximation as to the distance at which the deceased had been shot. The state placed a deputy sheriff on the stand and asked him a general question as to how far an ordinary smooth-bore, twelve-gauge shotgun, firing a shell of that type, would make a powder burn on a man's face.
- Subjects
FLORIDA; IDENTIFICATION of firearms; LEGAL judgments; HOMICIDE; SHOT (Pellets); SHERIFFS
- Publication
Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology (08852731), 1936, Vol 26, Issue 5, p756
- ISSN
0885-2731
- Publication type
Article