State v. ClarkState v. Clark
The defendant was indicted for murder, tried, and a qualified verdict of guilty without capital рunishment returned by the jury. He appealed.
Counsel for the accused requested the court to instruct the jury in a special charge that one of the verdicts thеy could return was ■“ Guilty of manslaughter.” This charge was refused by the judge, •on the grounds that the evidence in the case was entirely circumstantial; that the line of defencе adopted by the defendant was not in mitigation of the offence for any of the causes known to the law, which would have reduced the charge of murder to mаnslaughter.
Section 785 of the Revised Statutes says that “ on trials for murder • the jury may find the prisoner guilty of manslaughter.” It matters > not, therefore, what is the nature of the evidence or the line ' of defence adopted by the defendant — the law absolutely and with- ‘ out qualification gives the jury the right to return a verdict of manslaughter on a trial for murder. It was the duty of the judge to instruct and chargе them that if the evidence justified such. a verdict they could return it. The identical question presented in • this case was passed upon by this court in case of State vs. Brown, 40 An. 725. And for the reasons assigned by the trial judge in the instant case, the trial judge in that refused toiinstruet the jury that • they could return a verdict of manslaughter..
“ The charge was refused by the judge, on the ground, substantially, that the ruling invoked by the defence was inapplicablе to the state of facts developed during the trial, which admitted of no mitigated vеrdict, but called absolutely for a verdict of ‘ guilty, r or not guilty,’ and that to have given the charge requested would have been simply the enunciation of an abstract legal proposition which had no bearing upon the case on trial.” Id.
In commеnting on the statement of the trial judge in the case re- : ferred to, we said “ the law’s command is that the jury must be iuformed by the court that on trial for murder the jury may find the prisoner guilty of manslaughter, and the omission or refusal to so inform them is a flagrant disobedience of the law and is a fatal error.
This case was remanded (41 An. 410), and on the second trial the same question was, without the probable intention of the judge, thrust upon the сourt, by the charge of the trial judge, in which he said:
The language of Sec. 785 of the Revised Statutes, and the opinions of this court interpreting the sаme, are plain and unambigous, leaving no room for construction or a departure from the text of the section or the opinions of the court. It is to be rеgretted that the trial judge should have placed a construction on the Seсtion 785, in direct opposition to its obvious meaning, and contrary to the rulings of this cоurt. Such a course has served no useful purpose, but has been the occаsion of unnecessary delay in the final disposition of an important criminal cаse.
The judges of subordinate tribunals may not always concur in the-rulings of the appеllate court, but it is the jurisprudence of the State that they shall respect the rulings оf the Supreme Tribunal, and obey the law as interpreted by it.
After the law in a partiсular case has been announced by the appellate court, the individuаl opinions of judges of inferior tribunals are of little consequence, excеpt so far as they may be advanced in the obstructing of the course of justicе.
It is therefore ordered, adjudged and decreed that the judgment appealed from be annulled, avoided and reversed, and it is now ordered that this case be remanded to be proceeded with according to law.