23 S.E.2d 466 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1942
The evidence supported the verdict of voluntary manslaughter, and none of the special grounds of the motion for new trial discloses reversible error. The court did not err in overruling the motion.
The defendant, in his statement to the jury, said in part, that when he was leaving Lock's house Harris tried to pick a fuss with him about some money; called him a vile epithet, "You black son of a bitch;" and threatened to cut him with his knife. That the *491
defendant then went on back home, and when he got there he decided to go to Willie Hampton's house that night to "get his family to help my wife pick peas. I got home, thinking about after the boy had threatened to kill me, I don't know why, I just thought I would take up the gun and carry it on; it would enable me and Willie James to go hunting next morning before I went off to work; and I carried the gun on, had no intention to have any more trouble with the boy at all. When I went on back by Jabo's house, going to Willie James's house, the deceased came up kind of behind me and when I looked around he said: `You black son of a bitch, you got your gun.' I said, `Boy, I ain't got any gun at you. I don't want to have trouble with you. I told you when I left I didn't want to have any more trouble and nothing to do with you.' He reached out with his knife in this hand and he come close to my gun and knocked the gun off like that. I snatched the gun back, by having the gun in my hand and my hand down like this and when I snatched the gun, my hand on the trigger of the gun, the gun — by snatching it from him, trying to get the gun from him, the gun shot and killed him. I did not have any intention to kill him."
1. "The law of voluntary manslaughter may properly be given in charge to the jury on the trial of one indicted for murder, where, from the evidence or from the defendant's statement at the trial, there is anything deducible which would tend to show that he was guilty of voluntary manslaughter, or which would be sufficient to raise a doubt as to which of these grades of homicide was committed." Reeves v.State,
2. Special ground 1: The court charged the jury as follows: "I charge you that the two sections of the Code which I have just read, that is, section 70 [Code of 1933, § 26-1011] which has reference to justifiable homicide, in self-defense or in defense of habitation, person or property against one who manifestly intends or endeavors by violence or surprise to commit a felony on either, and section 71 of the criminal Code [Code of 1933, § 26-1012] covering *492
the principle of the shooting having occurred or the killing having occurred under the fears of a reasonable man, I charge you that these two sections which I have just read apply where the defendant himself is without fault; where he is assaulted or attacked without any fault on his part, and he simply acts in his own defense, and as to whether they apply in this case is altogether for your determination from the evidence and from the defendant's statement." To this instruction the plaintiff in error excepted on the ground that it instructed the jury that these two Code sections applied where the defendant was without fault, whereas the law does not require that the defendant be without fault. In addition to the above objection, the defendant contends that the excerpt is an incorrect statement of the law. The objections raised have been decided adversely to the contention of the defendant in Smith v. State,
3. Special ground 2: The evidence authorized the charge under Code, § 26-1014, and we think the jury were authorized to find that there was an intention to fight with deadly weapons, it being disclosed on the trial that one of the combatants had a knife and the other had a shotgun; and if the evidence authorized the charge on mutual combat the charge as given was not error under the ruling in Smith v. State, supra.
4. Special ground 3: There was no reversible error in the judge's charge for the reason complained of in this ground. Where the judge charged the law in reference to justification if the slayer acted under the fears of a reasonable man, in accordance with Code, § 26-1012, and also charged the law touching voluntary manslaughter and the reduction of the homicide from murder to manslaughter in accordance with § 26-1007, it furnishes no ground for reversal that he failed, in connection with the latter charge, to specifically instruct the jury as to what consideration might be given to threats and menaces in connection with the doctrine of reasonable fears. Futch v. State,
5. Ground 4: The defendant contended that voluntary manslaughter was not involved. Having decided in a previous division of this opinion that it was involved, there is no merit in this ground.
Judgment affirmed. Broyles, C. J., and Gardner, J., concur. *493