24 Ga. App. 342 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1919
“All men are presumed to intend the natural and proximate "Consequences of their action. When a man kills another by the use of means appropriate to that end, he is presumed to have intended that end. ‘When death results from the unlawful use of a deadly weapon, the law by presumption imputes to the slayer an intention to HU.’ Gallery v. State, 92 Ga. 463 (17 S. E. 836). ‘When one voluntarily shoots at another and the shot kills, the homicide cannot be involuntary.’ Smith v. State, 73 Ga. 79 (3). See also Stovall v. State, 106 Ga. 444 (3), 447 (32 S. E. 586); Johnson v. State, 4 Ga. App. 59 (60 S. E. 813).” Conley v. State, 21 Ga. App. 135 (94 S. E. 261). Counsel for plaintiff in error relies upon Wrye v. State, 99 Ga. 34 (25 S. E. 610). That case is not binding authority on this point, as appears from the following: “While there can not be either murderer voluntary manslaughter without an intent to kill, yet where the weapon used by the slayer was a pocket-knife, and he stabbed the deceased in the back with it, the intent to kill may be presumed; and it was not necessary that the evidence should affirmatively show that the knife used was a weapon likely to produce death. Johnson v. State, supra. The two cases cited by counsel for the plaintiff in error (Wrye v. State, 99 Ga. 34, 25 S. E. 610, and Warnack v. State, 3 Ga. App. 590, 60 S. E. 288) to sustain their contention that the court should have charged the law of involuntary manslaughter although that theory of defense was raised solely by the defendant’s statement, are not binding authorities upon this point, for the reason that the general statements in the decisions of those cases, which apparently so hold, are obiter; it appearing that in the Wrye case there was a timely written request to give such a charge, and that in the Warnaclc case the theory of involuntary manslaughter was raised not only by the defendant’s statement, but also by the sworn testimony.” Lott v. State, 18 Ga. App. 747 (3), 748 (90 S. E. 727).
Judgment affirmed.