46 Neb. 25 | Neb. | 1895
Plaintiff in error was, in the district court of Dawson county, convicted of murder in the first degree. There was no controversy as to the fact of the homicide. The principal questions raised were as to the insanity of the accused when the act was committed and when the trial took place. When the arraignment was about to be had there was a showing of the probable unsoundness of the mind of the prisoner, to such an extent that he could not assist in the conduct of his defense, wherefore it was insisted that he should not be required to plead or enter upon his defense until a jury should be impaneled and a trial be had as to his insanity. Upon the showing made, including an examination by the court of the accused, the court found and entered of record his finding that “the defendant un
All the instructions given were by the motion for a new trial, as well as by the petition in error, criticised in a single group.- In a case of ordinary importance it would be sufficient to note this fact as affording a sufficient reason for disregarding this assignment if there was found in the group a single instruction not open to criticism. Treating this assignment, however, as a challenge of the correctness of the instructions as a whole, we are unable to'agree with the counsel for the plaintiff in error in his somewhat technical criticisms. We have, however, gone a step further and have examined each instruction separately, and have been able to find no substantial ground of complaint in either of them.
It is insisted that the jury should have fixed the penalty in the verdict in accordance with the provisions of chapter 44, Laws, 1893. The provisions of that act in terms are restricted to any person who shall after its passage commit one of the crimes therein described. The act in question had no emergency clause and was approved April 8,1893, so that at the time the homicide was committed (May 11, 1893) chapter 44 aforesaid was not yet in effect. There was, therefore, no requirement that the jury in this case should fix the' penalty which should be inflicted upon the plaintiff in error. The judgment of the district court is
Affirmed.
January 10, 1896, fixed for the execution of the sentence imposed by the district court.