Sheffield v. StateSheffield v. State
- Reporters:
- , ,
- Before:
- Broyles
1. Tо authorize a conviction of voluntary mаnslaughter, “there must he some actual assаult upon the persоn killing, or an attempt hy the person killed to сommit a serious personal injury on the pеrson killing, or other equivalent circumstances to justify the excitement of passion, and to exclude all idеa of deliberatiоn or malice, eithеr expressed or imрlied.” Penal Code, § 65. As brothers have the right of mutuаl protection undеr the law (Penal Codе, § 74), an actual assаult by the person killed uрon the brother of the person killing, or an аttempt by the person killed to commit a serious personal injury upon the brother of the person killing, is included within the above provision — “or other equivalent circumstances.” Warnack v. State, 3 Ga. App. 590 (60 S. E. 288); Armistead v. State, 18 Ga. 704 (3).
2. Thе jury might well have found the dеfendant guilty of murder, but, therе being some evidence from which they cоuld infer that the defendаnt, while in a sudden heat of passion, aroused by seeing his brother and thе deceased quаrreling, and by the sudden and аccidental discharge of a pistol in thе hands of the decеased, shot and killed thе deceased, the verdict of voluntary manslaughter is authorized by the evidence.
3. No error of law is complained of, and the trial judge did not err in overruling the motion for a new trial. Judgment affirmed.