Lead Opinion
The appellant, Caldwell, stands convicted of murder in the first degree. The _ death sentence was imposed. Cecil Linton, a street car conductor, then in service, was the victim. The tragedy occurred on December 15, 1918. The appellant used a pistol, firing but two shots, one of which killed Linton and the other seriously wounded Morrison, the motorman of the street car. An outline of the event will suffice for present purposes. The appellant had entered the ear as a passenger; an altercation between him and Conductor Linton ensued; the motorman Morrison, went to the assistance of thе conductor, and forcibly ejected appellant from the car; from without the car, on the ground, the appellant, drawing a theretofore concealed pistol, shot Linton and Morrison, they being at the time on the rear platform of the car; whereupon the appellant fled from the scene and was, later, during the evening of that day, taken into custody.
*416 “That the causes on the dockets for trial shall be called peremptorily at the times fixed by law and at such other times as may be fixed by order of circuit judge; * * * and the eases against prisoners shall be called as many more times as may be necessary to secure prompt trials." (Italics supplied.)
This authorization and direction entirely justified the action of the court in entering the order which, as appears from its terms, was designed to equip the court with juries to serve the purposes contemplated by law as expressed in the quotation from the second section of the act of 1915.
“All cases pending in said court and at issue he triable at said special jury session of said court.”
It is insisted for appellant that, since his case was not at issue on January 6, 1919, the date the order was made, his trial was premature; he being arraigned and pleading not guilty on January 10, 1919. The words “at issue” in the order did not introduce any binding limitation upon the power of the court—consonant with the law-enjoined duty to afford “prompt trials” of prisoners—to proceed, during the term, with the trial of any case, civil or criminal, that was at issue then or was thereafter put at issue. The order does not provide for the trial of eases now (on January 6, 1919) “at issue.”
Every ruling of the court on the admission or rejection of evidence has been carefully considered, and on none of them can a finding of error be predicated.
“The law presumes malice from the use of a deadly weapon; that is, malice may be presumed from the use of a deadly weapon, unlеss the evidence which proves the killing rebuts that presumption of malice. If the killing is produced by a deadly weapon, such as a pistol, the law authorizes the jury to presume malice from the killing, unless the evidence which proves the killing shows also that it was done without malice.”
This expression of the court was in accord with the long-established rule prevailing in this jurisdiction. Hornsby v. State,
“Premeditаtion and deliberation here does not mean that the man slayer must ponder over the killing for a long time. It does not mean that he must sit down and reflect over it or think over it for an appreciable length of time; but it may exist and may be entertained while the man slayer is pressing the trigger of the pistol that fired the fatal shot. If it does exist before and while he is pressing the trigger that fired the fatal shot, oven if it be only for a moment or instant of time, it is the premeditation and deliberation as used as an element of murder in the first degree.”
The doctrine thus announced is in entire accord with that illustrated in Daughdrill v. State,
“If the killing was malicious, even if it was done in the heat of passion, it is murder. Even if a killing is done in the sudden heat of passion excited by sufficient provocation, such as a blow, if there is malice in it, and if there is also the premeditation and deliberation, as I have defined it to you, then it would he murder in the first degree.”
*418
This expression of the law was accurate and has been often approved. Smith v. State,
“He had no right to take the life of Cecil Linton unless a necessity to take his life existed at the time he did take it (if you believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that he fired the fatal shot), or unless there was apparent necessity to take the life of Cecil Linton. The law requires that there must have been real danger; that he must have been in danger of suffering serious bodily harm or death, or the appearances .of danger must have been such as to have created or produced in the mind of a x-oasonable man the honest belief that there was danger to his life, or that he was about to suffer death, or serious bodily harm.”
No error affected the instruction of the jury through the oral charge of the court. It is unnecessary to repeat, seriatim, the subjects of further excepted-to excerpts from the oral charge of the court. They have each been carefully considered; and from this consideration it is manifest that, in so far as the oral charge of the court is concerned, the appellant was accorded a fair statement of the law applicable to his case, and no admonition that would contribute to a just conclusion as between the state and the defendant was omitted or even carelessly stated.
“Homicide may be committed in the heat of рassion suddenly aroused by a blow, and yet be done maliciously. Suddenly aroused passion and malice may coexist, and both cause the act. When this is the case, the homicide, otherwise indefensible murder, is not reduced to manslaughter by reason of the passion.”
Hence it is always held that requests for instruction touching this particular phase of the law of homicide must exclude the coexistence of malice with a sudden passion or heat of blood where the defendant would reduce the grade of his offense. It is true that this court, in Martin’s Case, interpreted charge 20,.of which charge 17, refused to this аppellant, .is a substantial duplicate, as excluding, by its terms, the coexistence of malice with sudden passion under which the defendant acted; but in the more recent decision in Davis v.
State, 188
Ala. 59, 70,
[24] But, in any event, if charges 17 and 20 are interpreted as they were interpreted in the Martin Case, supra—as excluding the existence of malice in the act consequent upon sudden passion—then their substance was otherwise given to the jury by the court. In the oral charge of the court the evidence of defendant’s good character was given adequate and accurate consideration. The appellant’s request numbered 9, touching this subject, was sufficiently covered by the court in this feature of its oral charge. It has been long settled in this state that words of reproach, however grievous, are not a provocation sufficient to free a party taking life from the charge of murder; an assault being necessary in the premises. Felix’s Case,
Charge numbered 12, refused to the appellant (defendant), was faulty in several resрects under the evidence in this case. It will suffice to note that it, along with others, did not exclude, in its hypothesis, the coexistence of malice with the passion the charge recites.
*419 There is no error in the record, and the judgment of conviction must be affirmed.
Affirmed.
Addendum
On Rehearing.
*420 “(18) The court charges the jury that if they believe from all the evidence that the killing of the deceased was not malicious and was nоt premeditated, but that it was the result of the heat of passion caused by a blow, reasonably engendered at the time of the difficulty, the defendant could not be convicted of murder in either degree.”
“(20) The court charges the jury that if they believe from the evidence that the killing in this case resulted from the heat of passion, engendered in the defendant by the blow struck him by the deceased at the time of the fatal difficulty, and that the killing resulted solely from anger or heat of passion so engendered, the defendant cannot be convicted of murder, but of manslaughter, at the most.”
“When the killing in any sudden rencounter or affray is caused by the assailant by the use of a deadly weapon, which was concealed before the commencement of the fight, his adversary having no deadly weapon drawn', such killing is murder in the second degree, and may, according to the circumstances, be murder in the first degree.”
“The defendant has a right to a fair and impartial trial; he is entitled to that, and nothing short of that should be given him. You give the evidence in the case your earnest, your impartial consideration, and, if he is not guilty, acquit him. No prejudice should influence you one way or the other; no prejudice against his race, no prejudice against him, and sympathy for the dead man, should influence your verdict or should affect you in making up your minds in this ease. You are here to try it on the evidence and apply to the evidence the cold reason and the law as I have given it to you and say what is the truth about this matter, without being influenced by anything on the outside of what has actually been given 3'0U from the witness stand and by the-court.
“On the other hand, the state of Alabama and its citizens have rights, and their rights should be respected in making up your verdict in the case. If the defendant is guilty of any degree of unlawful homicide, it is just as much your' duty to the state of Alabama to convict him of that degree of which he is guilty as it is to acquit the defendant if he is not guilty.”
No motion for a change of venue was made.
On the original hearing no consideration was given the appellant’s motion to strike the matter set out in the bill of exceptions by the trial judge reciting the directions given by him -when this grand jury made its report in September, 1918; this for the obvious reason that this court concluiled, wholly independently of the mentioned recital, that the grand jury had not been dissolved or discharged, and that its reconvention was legally accomplished.
A full review on rehearing discloses no error in the record. The, application must be denied.
Rehearing overruled.
