209 Ga. 532 | Ga. | 1953
Walter Lee Turner was convicted in Richmond Superior Court of the murder of his father-in-law, Willie Houston, with a recommendation of mercy, and sentenced to life imprisonment. The
1. The evidence amply authorized the verdict, and the general grounds of the motion for a new trial are without merit.
2. While it is the duty of a trial judge to give in charge to the jury the law of voluntary manslaughter as related to mutual combat where the evidence discloses that the killing took place in the course of a rencounter in which the participants engaged with a mutual intention to fight (Shafer v. State, 191 Ga. 722, 13 S. E. 2d, 798), where, as here, the State’s evidence makes out a clear case of unprovoked murder, and the defendant’s statement shows legal justification for the homicide, a charge upon the law of voluntary manslaughter as related to mutual combat is neither required nor proper, either with or without a request therefor. Holland v. State, 166 Ga. 201 (142 S. E. 739); Johnson v. State, 173 Ga. 734 (161 S. E. 590); McDaniel v. State, 197 Ga. 757 (3) (30 S. E. 2d, 612); Joyner v. State, 208 Ga. 435 (67 S. E. 2d, 221); Hulsey v. State, 209 Ga. 61 (70 S. E. 2d, 766). The first special ground of the motion for new trial, complaining of the failure of the trial judge to charge the jury the law of voluntary manslaughter as related to mutual combat was properly overruled.
3. The second special ground of the motion for new trial complains that the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury that, if the accused was justified in shooting and killing his brother-in-law, and through inadvertence and accident he shot and killed his father-in-law through no fault of his own, he should be acquitted. While this contention
Judgment affirmed.