65 So. 763 | La. | 1914
The defendant was indicted .and tried for the crime of manslaughter, and on conviction was sentenced to imprisonment at hard labor in the state penitentiary for the term of five years. On appeal from this verdict and sentence, he presents four bills of exception for our consideration.
This question, whether the state must first prove the corpus delicti before offering evidence to connect the party accused with the crime charged, was considered and discussed very fully by this court in the case of State v. Gebbia et al., 121 La. 1083, 47 South. 32, and was decided adversely to the defendants who had been convicted of murder.
Although a jury cannot legally convict a person of murder or manslaughter without having proof beyond reasonable doubt that death resulted from a wrongful act, and although it may be better practice for the state’s attorney to first prove these essential elements of the crime before offering evidence of the guilt of the party accused, nevertheless, the law does not require proof
Bill of exceptions No. 2 was reserved to the judge’s adjournment of court five minutes before the usual hour of adjournment in order to permit the district attorney to procure the attendance of a material witness for the state, a practicing physician, who was absent from court. The defendant’s objection to this was unreasonable, and his bill of exceptions is .without merit.
Bill of exceptions No. 3 was reserved to the refusal of the trial judge to grant a new trial. The motion for a new trial was made upon two grounds: First, that the verdict was contrary to the law and the evidence; and, second that the defendant had discovered new evidence after the verdict was rendered.
In support of this first proposition, it is said that the jury believed the testimony of only three witnesses for the state, contradicted by the accused and by seven other witnesses who testified in his behalf. The jurors are the sole judges of the credibility of the witnesses and of the effect of their testimony. The preponderance of proof — or proof beyond a reasonable doubt — does not depend upon the number of the witnesses who testified on the one side or the other.
Bill of exceptions No. 4 recites that, as soon as the judge had overruled the motion for a new trial, the defendant’s attorney requested that the judge postpone pronouncing the sentence “for an hour or so,” to permit him to prepare his bills of exception, and that the judge denied the request for a postponement of the sentence, but allowed the attorney four days in which to prepare his bills of exception. In his statement per curi
For the reasons assigned, the verdict and sentence appealed from are affirmed.