5 Mich. 10 | Mich. | 1858
This cause comes before the Court upon reservation, on motion for a new trial, from the Circuit Court for the Coimty of Hillsdale. The questions presented arise upon exceptions taken at the trial.
The defendant was indicted, under Section 27, page 6'61, of. the Revised Statutes,
First. That if they believed the defendant gave the cantharides with the intent and for the purpose of exciting
Second. That before the jury could convict the prisoner, they must be satisfied that he mingled the cantharides with the raisins with the specific intent of doing her some bodily harm, and not for the purposes of seduction.
Third. That if the jury believed the defendant gave the cantharides for the purposes of seduction, that, although the giving the cantharides produced a severe bodily injury to the complainant, yet the defendant could not be found guilty, unless he knew it would produce such bodily harm, and intended that result.
All these requests the Court refused; and also charged the jury that if they should find the defendant mingled the cantharides with the raisins so given to the complainant, for the purpose of exciting her sexual passions, in order that he might have sexual intercourse with her, they should find him guilty. The defendant excepted to these rulings.
The questions arising for our decision may be conveniently arranged under the following heads:
1. Whether the intent to commit an injury, within the statute, as a means to the accomplishment of another ultimate and main unlawful object, is, by the existence of such ultimate design, taken out of the operation of the statute:
2. Whether a person who engages in the prosecution of an unlawful design against another, and uses poison to accomplish such design, which, by its natural action, produces a greater injury than he anticipated, is, by his ignorance of the probable extent of such injury, relieved from criminal responsibility for the act:
. 3. Whether the injuries shown in this case are within the statute.
The first and second charges asked by the defendant in the Court below, and the grounds taken in the argument, assume that, inasmuch as seduction, or an attempt at seduc
We have examined the authorities cited, and are unable to draw from them any such conclusion. All that they decide is, that the intent alleged in the indictment must be established. To this doctrine we readily subscribe. But we have not found in them any principle which, in our view, creates any other restriction.
In Sinclair's Case (cited from Russ. on Crimes, 788) where the defendant was indicted for an attempt to drown, it was held that offense was not made out, because his intent appeared merely to keep off from his landing a boat which was ajjproaching, and the injuries were inflicted on the boat alone, by pushes or blows given in that attempt. No injury was done or offered to the boys in the boat; and the danger of drowning, if it existed, was a result of the injuries to the boat. The case does not seem to us analogous.
In Rex vs. Duffin, Russ. & Ryan, 805, the finding of the jury expressly negatived the intent charged. And in Rex vs. Boyce, Ryan & Moody, 29, the special finding was of an intent which was not only not covered by the indictment, but was embraced as creating a distinct offense under the samé statute on which the indictment was brought. An inspection of the other cases cited will' show that they do not maintain the doctrine contended for. Regina vs. Sullivan, 1 Car. & M. 209; Rex vs. Akenhead, 1 Russ Cr. Law, 760; Rex vs. Holt, 7 Car. & P. 518; Reg. vs. Jones, 9 Car. & P. 258; and Rex vs. Howlit, 7 Car. & P. 274; are the other cases cited on this point.
We are not wanting in authority on this point, in cases arising in England under a statute similar to ours. In Rex
The rule adopted in the latter cases commends itself to our judgment more readily, because of the consequences Avhich would floAV from its rejection. A large class of statutory offenses consists of acts done with the ultimate intent to do some mischief, which may or may not be accomplished. The means used are frequently criminal and punishable. Where the ultimate intent is accomplished, that act may be detected and punished. But where it remains incomplete, and the intention rests with the guilty person, it Avould lead to a great perversion of justice to permit him to show, in defense of an indictment for using the unlawful means, that he had such an ultimate design of jterhaps greater atrocity, the evidence of which would not bo likely to be proclaimed publicly. Justice certainly requires no such principle to be adopted, and Ave find no sanction for it in the established rules of law.
We are, therefore, of the opinion, that if the defendant Avas guilty of the act charged in the indictment, it can make no difference in his favor that he committed it to enable him to seduce the prosecutrix. The second request made to the Court was, therefore, properly refused.
It is insisted, on behalf of the prisoner, that, although
The request made to the Court to charge on this subject, we think was properly refused. The defendant may not have known that the effect would be produced which actually occurred; but it does not follow that he might not have known it, or that he should be excused for using the poison, without knowing it. But it does not appear, from the bill of exceptions, that any evidence was offered to show this want of knowledge. Where an unlawful act is done, the law-presumes it was done with an unlawful intent. And here the act of administering the poison was unquestionably unlawful. So long as the poison remained in the hands of the prisoner, its mingling being an indifferent matter, no presumption arose against him; but tpe unlawful act of administering it raised the legal inference that he did it with the intention of producing such effects as would naturally result from its reception. It is unnecessary to decide how far even positive proof that a man was misinformed as to the degree of injury likely to arise from the use of any substance would avail him in defense, where he used it designedly for any unlawful purpose. But there can be no doubt that if the direct tendency of any^man’s willful act is to produce injury, and that injury is in fact produced, the intention is in law deducible from the act itself; and something-more than mere ignorance must be shown to relieve him from liability for all the consequences attending an act which he knows to be unlawful. — 3 Greenl. Ev. §§ 13, 14; York's Case, 9 Metc. 103.
Our attention has not been called to any legal construction given to this language, and we are therefore called upon to give it such an interpretation as seems to us in accordance with its words and design.
Most, if not all, poisons are deadly, if given in considerable doses; and the common understanding of the term “poison” is that it distinguishes substances which are thus fatal from bther minerals and drugs. But while fatal in one quantity, a smaller amount often produces injurious effects, varying in degree with the proportion given. The statute, recognizing this, was made to punish, not only the intent to produce death by poison, but also to produce injuries not fatal. And the wide range of punishment, from imprisonment for life to a brief period in the state prison, shows that it was not designed to make any rigid rule as to the degrees of injury, but to leave the whole matter open to a reasonable construction.
The injury referred to must, we think, be such as would be directly, and not secondarily, produced by the poison itself; and this being so, the circumstances attending it are important, as in other cases, to throw light on the intent, and also to graduate the punishment.
In looking into the subject under consideration, we are bound to take notice of such matters as belong to the common stock of ordinary human knowledge and experience, and can not shut our eyes to the current of events about us. There is no need of entering into any scientific discussion upon poisons, but there are facts relative to their use which are familiar to every man of common intelligence.
The instances of the administration of small quantities of poison, which become known from time to time, are rarely found to have been intended to produce mere physical pain or disability. Occasional instances are reported in the books of the continued administering of minute doses to prolong disease and agony; but experience has shown the most common abuse of poison to consist in its application as an auxiliary to the commission of other crimes. And it is wonderfully adapted to this nefarious purpose. Easily disguised in most kinds of food — capable of producing effects through small quantities — subtle and overpowering in its operation— it may be administered with ease and secrecy, and accomplish every villainous purpose, from inducing sleep and stupor, to insanity, paralysis, and death; and there are no agencies
And the records of our criminal courts have, of late years, shown it to be one of the chief means resorted to for the destruction of female virtue. Hundreds of innocent young women are deceived into entering the dens of iniquity which abound in our cities, under the pretext of honest employment, and awake from their drugged sleep dishonored and ruined. These things were all known when the statute was passed, and known too as the very common effects of these baneful drugs; and they can not be overlooked in any attempt to construe it. These effects are not all directly produced by the use of poison, but without it they would not be .brought about in such cases; and, therefore, it becomes necessary to see what part poisons have in producing the combined result. The part which they perform is very important. Their operation is to disable the injured person, and take away the power of resistance. And the injury in each case depends entirely, or nearly so, upon the extent of the danger which presses upon the victim, and the corresponding need of strength to resist it. If the intent be merely to produce sleep, or any other temporary and painless effect, and nothing inore, the injury might be very slight, and perhaps too trifling to be worthy of legal consideration; but if stupor, or any other unsound condition is produced, to facilitate personal violence, it becomes a very serious matter. The circumstances attending every forcible assault give it character; and the intent is, according to the claim made by the defendant himself, of the very essence of the injury. To
Wherever, therefore, there is a positive physical effect produced, and the poison administered operates to derange the healthy organization of the system, temporarily or permanently, we think there is an injury which, whenever it is reasonably appreciable, may be regarded as within the statute. The circumstances of each case will of course throw light on the criminality of intent, and govern the courts in trial and punishment. The law takes no heed of insignificant trifles, but, above and beyond those, it extends its protection and its penalties.
If other statutes covered analogous offenses, we might hesitate longer upon the proper construction of this law; but as many cases which could hardly have escaped notice are not to be reached unless through this statute, we are not disposed to resort to metaphysical subtleties, to defeat a law which, if severe, is, to the public, benignant and humane in its severity.
The intent of the defendant is, in all the requests to the Court, admitted to have been to excite the sensual desires of the prosecutrix, in order to make her an easier prey to his lust. This was ' to be effected by poison, which should so work upon her physical system as to excite her passions beyond the control of reason, and, in effect, to produce, if not insanity,- the most deplorable effect of insanity, which is the dethronement of reason from its governing power. It seems to us that to hold such an effect to be no injury, would be a mockery of justice.
We arc of opinion that the defendant’s exceptions are not Well taken, and that a new trial should not be granted.
Sec. 5737 of Compiled Laws.