189 Mass. 257 | Mass. | 1905
This trial was upon an indictment for manslaughter, and there was testimony tending to prove an assault by the deceased upon the defendant, immediately before the striking of the fatal blow. “ The defendant offered evidence to show that the general character and habits of the deceased were those of a violent and passionate person, a quarrelsome, fighting man, which character and habits were known to the defendant, as a circumstance tending to show the nature of the provocation under which the defendant acted, and the influence it had on the mind of the defendant, as showing a reasonable apprehension that, if he did not act promptly and effectually, his own death or great bodily harm would be the result.” The question before us is on the defendant’s exception to the exclusion of this evidence.
The principle on which our decision must rest was stated and discussed by Chief Justice Morton, in Commonwealth v. Barnacle, 134 Mass. 215. Of a case like the present, he said: “ In such cases, therefore, the questions whether there was reasonable
Our conclusion is in accordance with the doctrine of the text books, and with the great weight of authority in other jurisdictions. 1 Wigmore, Ev. § 246. Wharton, Homicide, (2d ed.) §§ 605-627. 5 Am. & Eng. Encyc. of Law, (2d ed.) 872, and notes. Smith v. United States, 161 U. S. 85. Abbott v. People, 86 N. Y. 460. Tiffany v. Commonwealth, 121 Penn. St. 165. Commonwealth v. Straesser, 158 Penn. St. 451. State v. Lull, 48 Vt. 581, 587. State v. Nett, 50 Wis. 524. Marts v. State, 26 Ohio St. 162. Horbach v. State, 43 Texas, 242, 250. Brownell v. People, 38 Mich. 732.
The reasons for the rule have been so often and so fully considered in these cases that further discussion is unnecessary. We are of opinion that the evidence was competent.
Exceptions sustained.
Memorandum.
On the eighteenth day of October, 1905, the Honorable Henry Newton Sheldon, one of the Justices of the Superior Court, was appointed a Justice of this Court, and on the twenty-third day of October, 1905, took his seat upon the bench at the sitting of the Court at Taunton in the County of Bristol.