The information upon which appellant was tried and convicted contains three counts. By the first and second appellant is charged, together with two other parties, Stanton Galbreath and Emory Bennett, with having committed an assault and battery upon William Rafter, with the felonious intent to commit murder in the first degree. ■ The third count charges him and four other persons, namely, Galbreath, Bennett j Wagoner, and Dudley, with unlawfully, knowiiigly, and .feloniously conspiring, uniting, and confederating together and agreeing with each other for the object and purpose and with the unlawful and felonious' intent unlawfully, feloniously, wilfully, purposely, and with ■ premeditated malice, to' kill and murder said Rafter, etc. The first and second counts of the information are based on §1982 Burns 1894, §1909 ITorner 1897, which reads, as folloivs: “Whoever perpetrates an assault or an assault and battery upon any human being, with intent to commit, a felony, shall, upon conviction thereof, be imprisoned in the state-prison not more than fourteen years nor less than two-years, and be fined not exceeding $2,000 dollars.” -The third count is based on §2260 Burns 1894, §2139 Horner
Upon appellant’s motion he was tried separately and the case against him was submitted to a jury for trial upon the several counts contained in the information and a verdict was returned finding appellant’guilty of the conspiracy as charged in the tliird 'count of the information, and over his motion for a new trialhe was sentenced by the court upon the verdict, of the jury to be imprisoned in the state’s prison for,an indeterminate,period of not less than two years nor more than fourteen years. From this.judgment he appeals, and. under his assignment; of .errors his counsel contend that the- trial court .erred in giving certain instructions to. the'jury and that .the. verdict is not sustained by th.e evidence. . The follpwing.may- be said to be an epitome of the evidence: On the night of March 1.0, 1900, appellant, John ■ Booher, -Stanton.Galbreath, Emory Bennett, Ray Wagoner, Lorenzo Dudley, and William Rafter, the prosecuting wit-, ness, .togeth'er path others, were in Hammer’s, saloon, in the town of Rierce.ton, Kosciusko county, Indiana. There is no evidence to show that ,the meeting of these parties was arranged by, any of them, but it appears that they came together casually at the, saloon in,question. . Rafter, it seems, had been at Warsa,w during the day, and had been drinking prior, to .his coming to Ilammer’s saloon., A short time after h.e came into the,saloon.a controversy seems to have arisen between him and Ray Wagoner in regard to a former difficulty or.fight which occurred.between Rafter and another .party.' Rafter claimed that he was drunk at the time.
The court on its own motion gave to the jury upon'the ■question of appellant’s intoxication the following instruction, which was the only one given upon that feature of the case: “Voluntary intoxication will not excuse crime. If the defendant Booher was drunk, it was his own fault, and he can not claim any immunity by reason of his intoxication. -It was his duty to keep sober, and if he voluntarily permittéd himself to become intoxicated, and while so intoxicated he committed the crime charged in any form, lie- is guilty, and should be punished precisely the same as though he had been sober. • It is not the law that a man may voluntarily become intoxicated, and commit crime, and e'seape punishment by reason of such intoxication, but upon the' other hand it is the law that he cannot use hi's own voluntary intoxication to escape the consequences of his acts while so intoxicated.” Counsel for appellant conten'd that the court in giving this charge clearly erred, to the prejudice of the accused. They concede that while voluntary intoxication 'is no excuse for the commission of a crime, nevertheless they insist that it may be considered where the essetice of the crime depends upon the intent with which the act is done, or where an essential element of the crime consists in doing an unlawful act with deliberation and premeditated' purpose. Hndér such circumstances it is insisted that' the mental condition of the accused, whether occasioned by voluntary intoxication or otherwise, is an important factor to be considered by the court or jury trying the case.
'The contention of appellant’s counsel upon'the question involved is supported by the decision of this court in Aszman
In Smurr v. State,
' In the case of Crosby v. People,
- In State v. Garvey,
In Mooney v. State,
In Whitten v. State,
In Chrisman v. State,
In Reagan v. State,
In Roberts v. People,
In Warner v. State, 56 N. J. L. 686,
In 1 Bishop’s New Crim. Law, §413, the author says: ■ “An indictable -attempt is committed- only when the intent-• is specific; namely, to do the particular thing which constitutes the substantive'crime. If, therefore, one- is--too-drunk t-o entertain such specific intent,- he can not become; guilty of the offense -of attempt -however culpable iñ a gen- ■ eral way-he may be for his drunkenness.” - * '
Other authorities of like import might be cited in support of the doctrine for which appellant contends-; those mentioned will suffice to disclose for what purpose the intoxication of the defendant on trial upon a criminal charge-which involves a- specific, actual,-intent, may be admitted: in evidence and considered in' h-is behalf. The intoxication of an ■ accused person, under- such cases, is not admissible, upon the ground that it of itself excuses or palliates-the crime, but is admitted and considered only for- the purpose of ascer- - taining-the condition of the -mind of the accused,- in order to' '• determine whether he was incapable- of * entertaining the-specific intent charged,, where such -intent, under the law, - is an-essential ingredient of the particular crime alleged to have been committed; hence, where a homicide -has been- • charged to- have been committed with- premeditated, or deliberate intent, the drunkenness of the defendant may be considered as tending to show, under all the.circumstances - in the case, that-the less, and not the greater, homicide was committed.- In all criminal- cases where the intent of the accused is an essential'element, such intent becomes a question o'f fact to be determined-by the jury or court trying the case upon a consideration of all the evidence. In-fact the rule'seems to be universally asserted by the authorities, that ■ in all prosecutions for an assault -with intent to kill, the intoxication of the defendant is admissible in evidence, and
It was also, within the province of the. jury upon■ either: the first or second count, if warranted by th,e evidence, to have acquitted, appellant -of the felonious intent and -com v-icted. him of. assault and battery only. Gillespie v. State,
Applying the principle- so fully, and generally, supported by the authorities to .which .we • have. referred, it becomes manifest that the, intoxication-pf appellant, which was ad-' mitted- in evidence, ought to have been considered, by. the jury for the purpose of rebutting the felonious intent to kill and murder the prosecuting witness, with which, as charged . under the first and second counts,-he committed the assault and battery, and, under the third count, with which, he en
