6 N.M. 464 | N.M. | 1892
The plaintiff in error was tried at the last April term of the San Miguel district eourt upon an indictment, found by the grand jury of Colfax county, charging him with murder in the first degree. The jury found him guilty, and, in accordance with the law, the court adjudged him to suffer death by hanging. From the judgment of that court he has appealed to this court, and it now becomes our duty to pass upon the errors which he has assigned and urged upon us as a reason for the reversal of that judgment. It will be necessary to state somewhat fully the facts as shown by the record and the bill of exceptions in order to appreciate the assignment of errors which he has made. He was indicted by a grand jury of Colfax county upon the twenty-fifth of March, 1892, for the murder of one James Lannon in that county upon August 9, 1891. Upon the following day, to wit, March 26, 1892, he was arraigned in open court, and, stating that he was too poor to procure counsel, the court appointed M. Salazar, Esq., and J. Leahy, Esq., to defend him. He then admitted that his true name was “Frederick Faulkner” instead of “Frank Woods” or “Frank Decker.” On the twenty-eighth of March he came into court, attended by his counsel, and pleaded not guilty. At the same time he asked for a change of venue because of the local prejudice, which was granted, and his case was sent to San Miguel county for the April term of the district court, and set for trial on the third Monday of that term, which was the eighteenth day of April. Upon that day, it being the thirteenth day of the term, and the day set for his trial, he came into court, attended by his counsel, and made application for a continuance upon various grounds. The court took the application under immediate consideration, and denied it. The jury was impaneled, and the evidence submitted, and on the nineteenth day of April the jury returned their verdict of guilty, as charged. On the twentieth of April the defendant filed his motion for a new trial, assigning six classes of errors, as reasons for granting the same. The motion was denied. A motion in arrest of judgment was then made and overruled, whereupon the court passed sentence of death.
This was the testimony of the territory. The defendant testified in his own behalf substantially as follows: That his right name was Fred Faulkner, but that his mother had been married a second time to a man by the name of Woods, and that he went by that name; that he was in the insane asylum at Pueblo, Colorado, during the latter part of July, 1891, but had escaped, and come to Trinidad in search of work; that there he met and became acquainted with Bob Carr, and agreed with him to go out as a cook for a surveying party; that upon the same day, but later, he, the defendant, went down the street, “and I seen him talking to the old man, and” afterward “hegave mean introduction to him, but not by the name he is here called;” that he remained a day or two longer in Trinidad, visiting the Salvation Army, of which he was a member, when Carr started him and the old man off, telling him he would come later, but, as he owed his hotel bill, that he didn’t wish to give the appearance of leaving just then; that about 8 or 9 o’clock at night he overtook them at their camp; that Carr ordered him to get up and feed his horse, which he did; that being very tired, he immediately returned to his bed, and fell into a sound sleep; that the next morning Carr woke him up, told him to put the things into the wagon, and that they would start; that he asked Carr where the driver was, and that he replied, “Drive on; he is all right;” that he was going to ask him some other questions, but that he pulled out his gun, and told him to “go on;” that he drove ahead to Folsom, where he obtained something to eat by purchasing it, Carr at the time being on the outer edge of the town; that, at Folsom, Carr told him to drive on, and that he would be right after him, and if he stopped he was liable “to get one of these; and he pulled his gun and showed it to me;” that he kept on the road until arrested. He gave a somewhat different version of the arrest by the deputy sheriff, and denied point-blank all the testimony given by the territory’s witnesses as to his various admissions. He stated that he had been in an asylum in Illinois, Missouri, and Colorado, and that he was at times subject to fits. This was the substance of his evidence upon the direct examination. His cross-examination, while modifying the direct but little, was far from disingenuous. He refused to answer pertinent questions, and persisted in evading answers, and was constantly making endeavors, by evasions and impertinent remarks, to withdraw the attention of the counsel from the question propounded. If the evidence then was all rightfully before the jury, we can not see how that body could escape the conclusion, beyond a reasonable doubt, that there had been committed a most foul murder, and that this defendant was the author of such crime, unless they had refused to believe the witnesses for the territory, and had placed implicit credence in the story of the defendant. The jury have said by their verdict that he was guilty. They are the judges of the credibilty of the witnesses, and we see nothing upon this record to convince us that their judgment upon that question was not absolutely correct, even had we the authority to inquire into it. Were there, then, errors in the actions of the trial judge in the refusing of a continuance, in the admission of testimony, or in the giving of instructions? The defendant makes eight assignments of errors, and, at the risk of making this opinion somewhat lengthy, but justifying it by the gravity of the case, we will consider those errors seriatim.
4. It is assigned as error that the court in its ninth instruction upon the question of justifiable and excusable homicide stated the law incorrectly. The fault complained of is, not that the law so far as given was not correct, but that it became erroneous by failing to state the whole law upon the subject. In other words, that the court erred in naming certain classes of persons, the legal defense of whom is justifiable, and in not naming other classes mentioned in the statute. If, however, the evidence only applied to one class of persons, then it was only necessary to instruct as to that class. This upon the reason of the rule as applicable to instruction as to degrees of crime. But a satisfactory answer to this assignment of error is that there is-not one iota of evidence, to which any instruction upon self-defense could apply, found in the record. If, then,, there was any error at all, it was not that assigned, but it was in giving any instruction whatever. Such error, however, could not have confused or misled the jury, and in any case was favorable to the plaintiff in error, and he can not complain.
We have thus briefly considered all the errors assigned as to the instructions, and have failed to find any error which calls for a reversal. The instructions, as a whole, were fair, just, and favorable to the defendant. They were quite lengthy, but at all times kept before the jury’s mind the le'ading rule of criminal evidence, that they could not find the defendant guilty unless they believed beyond a reasonable doubt that all the material allegations which the territory was bound to prove had been proven; and, after a careful and earnest consideration of the evidence, we are unable to see how a jury could honestly and intelligently come to any other conclusion than it did. We can not refrain from saying that we think that too often hypercritical constructions are placed upon instructions by counsel, in the earnestness of their contention, which could not have entered into the minds of the jurors. Language often, by its form of expression, grows in the mind of a person who studies it with a purpose of seeing just what is in it, until the idea evolved is far different than that which its author or those to whom it was addressed imagined. Jurors do not usually enter into a critical analysis of the language of an instruction, but are guided by the first impression which accompanies it, and that impression, in the most cases, is the one which the judge intended that they should have. In the instructions complained of upon the ground that they tended to discredit the defendant’s testimony, because he was directly named, this is evident. The judge never had the thought of so doing, as it would have been improper, and it is not supposable that it had any such impression upon the jurors.
7. A number of witnesses testified to certain admissions or confessions which the defendant made while in the custody of the officers. They were made to the officers. It is claimed that it was error to admit them because made under duress. But there was no evidence whatever that they were so made. The defendant when upon the stand did not claim that they were made under duress. His testimony was that they were never made; that they were pure inventions. That was a question for the jury. That they were made voluntarily, if made, must be conceded, and hence they were admissible. Whart. Crim. Ev., sec. 649; 1 Greenl. Ev., sec. 219, et seq.
There being no error found in the action of the trial court, the judgment will be affirmed.