29 Ind. 394 | Ind. | 1868
This was an indictment for murder in the first degree. The appellant was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for life. It is claimed that the evidence, as contained in the hill of exceptions, does not sustain the finding of the jury. That the deceased, one John Frederick, came to his death by violence is conclusively shown; that the death was caused by the appellant is attempted to be established by circumstantial evidence. To sustain such a conviction, the facts proved must be susceptible of explanation upon no reasonable hypothesis consistent with the innocence of the person charged. Althóugh the mysterious crime cannot be solved from the evidence, except upon the supposition of the defendant’s guilt, still a conviction cannot follow. The life or liberty of a person cannot be legaly sacrificed on the ground that only by regarding him as guilty an explanation is afforded of the perpetration of a' proved offense. The circumstances surrounding the person charged must point beyond any other reasonable solution to his guilt.
The evidence, as stated in the record, is that Frederick was left in his grocery store, at about ten o’clock at night, by three persons, who testified as witnesses on the trial; that they went west from his store, and had proceeded some eighty or ninety yards when they heard a cry of murder, and returning instantly, found Frederick lying on the pavement in front of his store, insensible from the effect of a blow on the back part of his head, which had crushed his skull. Frederick seemed to have been in the act of closing his grocery when he was struck. A stick, with which the wound appeared to have been inflicted, was found near the body. Erom the effect of the blow Frederick died
On the part of the defendant, it was in proof that he had • frequently been with the deceased in his grocery, and the day before the assault, had, in company with another person, made purchases there. On the night in question, the
The judgment is reversed, and the cause remanded for a new trial, the defendant to be returned to the jail of War-rick county, &c.