40 S.C. 345 | S.C. | 1894
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The defendant was indicted for, and convicted of, the murder of L. Washington Hipps, and having been duly sentenced, appeals upon the following-grounds :
1st. Because his honor refused to charge the jury that they had the right to consider the intoxication or drunkenness of the defendant in any event, even in determining the intent with which he acted, or whether he acted with malice.
2d. Because his honor, the Circuit Judge, not only refused to charge the jury as above set forth, but charged the jury as .follows: “In the eye of the law, a man is responsible for his acts, and a drunken man is just as responsible as a sober man, because, if the law were otherwise, a man would only have to fill himself up with whiskey, and go on and perpetrate an offence, and then plead that he was under the influence of liquor. That is not the law of this State, and it never has been the law.”
3d. Because his honor, the Circuit Judge, refused to charge the jury that if they believed from the evidence that the deceased drew the hoe to strike at the defendant, that he had a right to put himself in position to defend himself, and if under these circumstances the gun went off accidentally, he would not be guilty of any offence at all.
5th. Because his honor, the Circuit Judge, did not charge the jury correctly as to the law of accidental killing, and did not charge the law fully with reference to the facts of this case, but, amongst other things, erroneously charged as follows: “If a workman in a town was on a house, and threw off a scantling, and gave due notice of the injury, and it hit some one and killed him, that would be an accident, and he should go free; but if, on the other hand, a workman in a town would throw a piece of scautliug or other heavy substance off a house into a street where people are wont to pass, and it strikes and kills some one, that would be murder.”
6th. Because his honor, the Circuit Judge, refused the defendant’s motion for a new trial.
The judgment of this court is, that the judgment of the Circuit Court be affirmed, and that the case be remanded to that court in order that a new day may be assigned for the execution of the sentence heretofore imposed.