44 Conn. 537 | Conn. | 1877
On the night of June 11th, 1876, the accused inflicted a severe gun-shot wound upon the arm of one March, between the elbow and shoulder. March died eleven days thereafter of lock-jaw. The prosecution claimed that death resulted from the wound; the accused claimed that it resulted from the treatment of the case by the attending physicians. The wound was dressed in the first instance by one surgeon, afterwards to the time of death by another; these differed radically as to the manner in which the case should have been treated.
The counsel for the accused claimed, and asked the court to charge the jury, that ii they should find that the death of March was the result or consequence of willful mismanagement or gross carelessness on the part of the attending surgeons, they could not find the accused guilty of manslaughter, as charged in the information. The court charged the jury, that unless they should find that March died from a wound inflicted on him by the accused, as charged in the information,
As to the law applicable to this case, Roscoe says: “ The law on this point is laid down at some length by Lord Hale. If, he says, a man give another a stroke, which, it may be, is not in itself so mortal but that with good care he might be cured, yet if he dies within the year and day, it is a homicide or murder as the case is, and so it has been always ruled. But if the wound be not mortal, but with ill application by the party or those about him of unwholesome salves or medicines the party dies, if it clearly appears that the medicine and not the wound was the cause of the death, it seems it is not homicide; but then it must clearly and certainly appear to be so. But if a man receive a wound which is not in itself mortal, but for want of helpful applications or neglect it turn to a gangrene or a fever, and the gangrene or fever be the immediate cause of the death, yet this is murder or manslaughter in him that gave the stroke or wound; for that wound, though it was not the immediate cause of the death, yet if it were the mediate cause, and the fever or gangrene the immediate cause, the wound was the cause of the gangrene or fever, and so consequently causa causans.” Roscoe’s Criminal Evidence, 7th ed., 717; 1 Hale P. C., 428. In Rex v. Rews, Kelynge, 26, it was holden that neglect or disorder in the person who receives the wound will not excuse the person who gave it; that if one gives wounds to another who neglects the care of them and is disorderly, and does not keep that rule which a wounded person should do, if he die it is
Upon these authorities we may state the rule as follows: If one person inflicts upon another a dangerous wound, one that is calculated to endanger and destroy life, and death ensues therefrom within a year and a day, it is sufficient proof of the offence either of manslaughter or murder as the case may be; and he is none the less responsible for the result •although it may appear that the deceased might have recovered if he had taken proper care of himself, or that unskillful or •improper treatment aggravated the wound and contributed to •liis death.
There is no such defect in the law as that the person who intentionally inflicts a wound calculated to destroy life, and from which death ensues, can throw responsibility for the act upon either the carelessness or the ignorance of his victim; or shield himself behind the doubt which disagreeing doctors may raise as to the treatment proper for the case.
Indeed counsel for the defendant.do not really deny the force of the rule. Their complaint is rather in the nature of a verbal criticism of the charge. The judge said to the jury that if the death of March resulted from the wound and from no other cause, carelessness and mismanagement of whatever character on the part of the attending surgeons would be
A new trial is not advised.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.