31 Ind. 480 | Ind. | 1869
This case must be reversed for various • reasons.
There was not a particle 'of evidence that the offense-charged was committed within the jurisdiction of the court-below. This, doubtless, ivas an oversight, but without sucln evidence there should have been an acquittal.
Then the court in its instructions told the jury, that the-defendant had,during the progress of the trial,admitted certain important facts, and that the facts thus admitted must be taken as if proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Now, if such admissions were made, they were evidence, and yet a bill of exceptions purporting to contain all the evidence is wholly silent as to such admissionshaving been made. We.must look to the bill of exceptions for the evidence, and', (though we may apprehend that there was an oversight in - this respect in making it np) we are compelled to hold, as • the record stands, that there was no warrant for the state- ■ ment of the court.
But, to come to what may be deemed the merits of the.;
The judge is required by statute, in crimiual cases, to in.struct the jury in the law. The consistent theory is, that •.this is for the information of the jury, to aid it in forming .an opinion for its own guidance. If the judge adorns his high place by his learning and impartiality, his juries will 'be apt to rely upon his instructions, because they will deem them correct. They may reasonably rely upon him as a trustworthy source of information concerning the law, as they would upon a truthful witness concerning the facts— .not because any rule of law requires that they must, but lbecause.théir<owm common sense suggests the credit due to
It is true, that upon this subject a correct instruction was given at the request of the defendant. But that did not repair the error. Contradictory instructions would, if allowed, make the trial by jury a most mischievous institution.
The seventh instruction given at the request of the prosecution should have been withheld, for the reason that there
The following was given at the request of the prosecution:
“ 6. Every sane man is conclusively presumed to contemplate the natural and probable consequences of his own acts; and, therefore, the intent to murder is conclusively inferred from the deliberate use of a deadly weapon.”
This, though transcribed from an approved text-book (1 G-reenl. Ev. § 18), is not sustained by the authorities which the writer cites in its support. It is entirely at variance with principles which have received the uniform sanction of all the courts in this country and Great Britain. It is a great inaccuracy, and it is strange that a book which has passed through so many editions should still contain it. A conclusive presumption admits of no proof to rebut it; and murder is a felonious killing. Such is the technical as well as popular meaning of the significant terms used in the instruction. The purport of it, then, is, that if the defendant killed the person named by the deliberate use of a deadly weapon, no evidence to show that the act was done in his necessary self-defense can be sufficient to rebut the presumption, or to prove that the killing was excusable and not felonious. Evidence for that purpose was offered and admitted; and, indeed, that seems to have been the defense relied on. It can therefore be readily seen how fatal to the rights of the defendant this charge was, if followed by the jury.' Nor was this error cured by giving a contradictory and correct instruction upon the subject, at the request of the defendant.
We find occasion in this case to say that the practice of giving apparently conflicting instructions, though not really so intended, and leaving the jury to conjecture which of them should be applied to a given state of facts, is not favorable to the correct adminstration of justice. The court should generally tell the jury the state of facts to which the proposition of law announced is applicable. Then there
Reversed, and renfended for a new trial. Prisoner to be returned.