28 Del. 326 | Delaware Court of Oyer and Terminer | 1915
charging the jury:
Gentlemen of the jury:—The prisoner, Peter Krakus, alias Peter Melba, is charged in this indictment with murder of the first degree.
It is claimed by the state that the prisoner on Saturday, March sixth of the present year, at Sixth and Market Streets in this city, without excuse or justification, deliberately, designedly and with express malice aforethought, shot and killed Francis X. Tierney, a police officer of this city, while he was attempting, in the discharge of his duty, to arrest the prisoner. It is further claimed by the state that the prisoner had several times shot Sharpless, another police officer, at or immediately before Tierney attempted to make the arrest, and that no shot was fired at
The defendant, by his counsel, does not contend that he is not guilty of any crime, but claims that he is not guilty of any crime greater than murder of the second degree.
It will not be necessary, therefore, for the court to define and explain to you any crimes other than murder of the first and second degree.
Malice is not easily defined. It is a condition of the mind or heart, and in legal contemplation is not restricted to spite or malevolence towards the particular person slain, but also includes that general malignity and reckless disregard of human life which proceed from a heart void of a just sense of social duty and fatally bent on mischief.
If the jury are satisfied from the evidence that the prisone
In considering the evidence with a view to determine whether the prisoner, is guilty of murder of the first degree, you must be guided by the legal definitions and nature of these two degrees of murder, and bear in mind the distinction between malice express and malice implied, as these have been explained to you.
Under this indictment, you may find the prisoner guilty in manner and form as he stands indicted—that is, guilty of murder in the first degree—or guilty of murder in the second degree, as in your judgment the evidence shall warrant.
Verdict, guilty of murder in the first degree.
Whereupon counsel for the prisoner moved for a new trial and in arrest of judgment. The prisoner was remanded until Friday, the twenty-fifth of March. On that day the motion was
Peter Krakus, alias Peter Melba, stand up.
Peter Krakus, alias Peter Melba, you were indicted by the grand jury of this county for murder of the first degree.
Upon that indictment you had a fair and impartial trial. Your counsel with great fidelity and ability, presented to the court and jury every fact and argument which in his judgment were available for your defense. The jury, nevertheless, rendered a verdict of guilty; and it therefore becomes the solemn duty of this court to pronounce the sentence of the law upon you for the commission of the heinous crime for which you were indicted.
Have you anything to say why the court should not now pronounce the sentence of the law upon you?
The Prisoner: I have nothing to say.
Pennewill, C. J.:—The duty the court must now perform is most painful and distressing, but it is a duty that is imposed by the law, and we cannot avoid it.
The sentence of the law, as considered by the court, is that you, Peter Krakus, alias Peter Melba, be now taken from the bar of this court to the New Castle County Workhouse, the public prison of this county, the place from which you came, and be there safely and securely kept in custody until Friday, the fourteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord 1915, and on that day, between the hours of ten o’clock in the morning and three o’clock in the afternoon, you be taken to some convenient place of private execution within the precincts of said prison inclosure, and that you be then and there hanged by the neck until you be dead; and may God have'mercy on your soul.
You are now committed to the custody of the board of trustees of the New Castle County Workhouse until this sentence is carried into execution.