# Johnson v. State

> Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama · December 9, 1975 · 57 Ala. App. 238

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9683811

## Case

- **Full name:** Charles JOHNSON, Alias v. STATE
- **Court:** Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
- **Decided:** December 9, 1975
- **Citations:** 57 Ala. App. 238; 327 So. 2d 733; 1975 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1263
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Cates
- **Judges:** Bowen W. Simmons
- **Cited by:** 4 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9683811

## Opinion text

CATES, Presiding Judge
(concurring specially):
The common law expression of putting in fear does not require a chilling fright to run through the victim’s veins and thus produce a consciousness of violent duress.
* * * And when it is laid to be done by putting in fear, this does not imply any great degree of terror or affright in the party robbed: it is enough *240 that so much force, or threatening byword or gesture, be used, as might create an apprehension of danger, or induce a man to part with his property without or against his consent. Thus, if a man be knocked down without previous warning, and stripped of his property while senseless, though strictly he cannot be said to be put in fear, yet this is undoubtedly a robbery. Or, if a person with a sword drawn begs an alms, and I give it him through mistrust and apprehension of violence, this is a felonious robbery.
—Blackstone, iv Com. 243
I would not make the subjective feeling of the victim a sine qua non of putting in fear. 1 Rather, a presented firearm with a demand for money suffices to let a case go to a jury.
TYSON, HARRIS, DeCARLO and BOOKOUT, JJ., join in this concurrence.
. See: Gross v. State, 1975, 56 Ala.App. 709 , 325 So.2d 216 ; Brown v. State, 48 Ala.App. 456 , 265 So.2d 898 (1972).

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9683811. Public record. Not legal advice.