106 Iowa 701 | Iowa | 1898
Tbe facts are quite fully stated in tbe opinion filed on tbe first appeal, and need not be repeated
I. The trial court instructed the jury, in effect, that if defendant gave, or was a party to the giving of, a deadly poison to Michael Smith, and if she did so knowingly and feloniously, then the jury 'might find her guilty. It further charged that if some person or persons other than defendant gave the poison, and if defendant and such other person or persons conspired and agreed together to kill said Smith, and if, in carrying out such conspiracy, they acted in concert to accomplish their end, and if the poison was administered by one of them, then the giving of the poison was the act of all, and each was equally guilty with the other. The indictment is in a single count, and in the usual form of such presentments. No conspiracy or confederation is charged.
Further, it is said that the instruction with reference to conspiracy is erroneous and misleading. This contention is without merit, and the criticism is captious and hypercritical.
Another point made is that a conspiracy must be proven, and defendant’s connection therewith established, before the acts, conduct, or declarations of the other conspirators can be received in evidence. This may be true, but there is nothing in the instructions to the contrary.
Further objection is made to these instructions because -of the use of the words “only” and “alone,” which we have italicized to indicate the point more clearly. The language •of the statute is that “a conviction cannot be had upon the testimony of an accomplice unless corroborated by other evidence which shall tend to connect the defendant with the commission of the offense; and the corroboration is not sufficient if it merely show the commission of the offense or the circumstances thereof.” Code 1873, section 4559. We do1 not think the use of the words referred to vitiated the instructions. They are implied in the statute itself.
Some-other objections are made to certain sentences used in these instructions. If these statements stood alone, there would be some ground for the complaints; but, when read in connection with the other parts thereof, they are not erroneous. Taken as a whole, these instructions fully and clearly state the law on the subject. We need not do more than refer to the rule that instructions should be considered together in arriving at their intent and meaning. Sentences and paragraphs can be culled out of nearly every set of instructions which, considered alone, would be erroneous, but when taken
IV. Appellant complains of the court’s failure to instruct that corroboration of both Cora McOamley and Ellen Scoville was required in the event the jury found they were accomplices in the commission of the crime. Much that is said in the last preceding division of this opinion is applicable to this contention. Defendant offered Oora McOamley as a witness worthy of credit. This witness made no claim that she was an accomplice. If found to be such, it must have been from other evidence than her own. As defendant vouched for the truthfulness of Oora McOamley, no instruction as to corroboration of her evidence was necessary. See Johnson v. State, 4 G. Greene, 65, which gives one of the reasons why an accomplice must be corroborated.
Some other errors are assigned on the admission and rejection of evidence. None of them are of sufficient importance to demand separate consideration, and we answer them with the simple statement that we find no error.
VII. Lastly, it is insisted that the verdict is not supported by the evidence, and that the accomplice Ellen Scoville was not sufficiently corroborated. The case has been twice tried, each time resulting in a verdict and judgment of guilty as charged. That deceased died from arsenical poisoning seems too clear for serious dispute. If the witness Ellen