146 Ga. 6 | Ga. | 1916
Lead Opinion
According to the evidence introduced by the accused, the law of voluntary manslaughter should have been included by the court in the instructions to the jury. It was within the province of the jury to accept or reject this theory of the case, but in either event it was a substantial legal right of the accused to have the issue submitted. It was in evidence that the deceased, Bül Black, had threatened the life of the defendant, Bob Peterson ; indeed, Mr. Sealy, sworn for the defendant, testified that Black said that day, referring to Peterson, “I’m going to get him; I don’t let any nigger call me a damn liar,” and “I’ll get him; I ain’t
The evidence introduced by the State made a strong case of murder, and the verdict of the jury was entirely authorized, provided they believed the evidence for the State, and rejected the evidence for the defendant. Inasmuch, however, as the jury were precluded from considering the law of voluntary manslaughter as applicable to the case, and ’consequently were not permitted to 'consider the finding of a verdict against the defendant for voluntary manslaughter, the defendant is entitled to a new trial. The witnesses may be unworthy of belief. But that does not deprive the accused of the right to have all of the issues which were properly raised by the evidence submitted to the jury. The evidence quoted above, if true, was sufficient to show that there was “an actual assault upon the person killing, or an attempt by the person killed to commit a serious personal injury on the person killing, or other equivalent circumstances to justify the excitement of passion,” etc. The jury should have been permitted to say in their verdict whether such was the truth of the case, and whether the killing was the result of that “sudden, violent impulse of passion supposed to be irresistible,” and whether there was “an interval between the assault or provocation given and the homicide, of which
Judgment reversed.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting. In our opinion there was no evidence which would authorize an instruction to the jury on the law of voluntary manslaughter; and we therefore dissent from the ruling made in the headnote.