State v. Collins
| Decision Date | 31 August 1848 |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
| Parties | THE STATE v. JOHN COLLINS. |
It is never the duty of a Judge to charge a jury upon a fact, purely hypothetical. If he does, it is an error, which can and will be corrected, if it act to the injury of the accused; and against which the Judge ought to be guard, as it is irremediable, if calculated to prejudice the prosecution.
Whether, on the trial of an indictment for homicide, the weapon, alleged to have been used, is a deadly weapon or not, is a question for the Court, not for the jury.
Where, on the back of a bill of a indictment, the clerk of the Court has certified, that certain witnesses were sworn and sent to the Grand Jury, that is sufficient evidence that the bill was sent to the Grand Jury.
Where the jury, on a trial for homicide, state that the prisoner at the bar is guilty, and the clerk, in recording the verdict, calls him the prisoner at the bar, this is sufficient evidence from the record to show, that the prisoner was actually in Court when the verdict was rendered.
The cases of State v. Benton, 2 Dev. & Bat. 196, State v. Croton, 6 Ire. 185, State v. Swinke, 2 Dev. & Bat. 9, Reid v. Moore, 3 Ire. 310, State v. Christmas, 4 Dev. & Bat. 413, cited and approved.
Appeal from the Superior Court of Law of McDowell County, at the Spring Term, 1848, his Honor, Judge BATTLE presiding.
The prisoner is indicted for murder. The case states, that the prisoner and the deceased, with many other persons, were assembled at the house of a Mrs. Gardiner, to shuck corn--while at dinner, a quarrel arose between the prisoner and one Morrison--in which the deceased, who was present, did not interfere. The prisoner left the table and the house, with the avowed intention of going home. He was, at that time, under much excitement, and observed to the company “boys do not follow me.” After he had gotten within about fifty yards of the corn heap where he had left his coat, the witnesses on behalf of the prosecution stated, that the deceased, with several of the company overtook him, when a conversation ensued between the prisoner and the deceased, in which, at its close, the deceased observed to the prisoner, you can get over the fence and eat some shelotts, adding some rude expression, and immediately turned off from him and advanced towards the corn heap, when the prisoner advanced several steps towards the deceased and drew his knife, and while his back was to him gave the deceased the fatal stab of which he died within a week. After giving the mortal wound, the prisoner wiped his knife and put it into his pocket. For the defence, the prisoner's son, Zachariah Collins, swore, that upon the quarrel between his father and Morrison “the prisoner went out telling the boys not to follow him,” that the deceased and others followed on behind him and the deceased came up to him and took hold of him by the shoulders and told him, that he might get over into the little patch and eat as many shelotts as he pleased (adding the offensive expression as stated by the witnesses for the State) that, at the time this took plac??, the prisoner and deceased were standing side by side, and that they stood so three or four minutes, that witness went on past them and did not see the stab given, and had gone eight or ten steps, when he heard the exclamation that the deceased was stabbed. Noah Connipe, another witness for the prisoner, swore “that he saw the prisoner as he came out of the house, that he said he was mad, very mad, that witness carried him his hat, when he said he was going home as soon as he could get his coat, which he said was near the corn pile and he started off in a sort of trot, telling the young men among whom was the deceased, not to follow him. The witness also told them not to follow him, and his wife exclaimed, for God's sake boys dont follow him. The counsel for the prisoner contended, that the testimony of Connipe and Zachariah Collins was true, and that the jury must be satisfied from it, that the deceased was engaged, with the other young men, who were at the corn shucking, in laughing at and making sport of the prisoner, that the deceased had not only caught the prisoner by the shoulder, as stated by his son, but had used other violence to his person, by jerking him down and that the fatal stab was given, while laboring under the excited feelings thereby occasioned, and that therefore he was not guilty of murder, but only of manslaughter; and farther that the instrument used was not a deadly weapon and that the death caused by it was accidental, and for that reason also the prisoner could only be guilty of manslaughter. The instrument used was a pocket knife with two blades, one small and the other larger, and the latter was used and the blade was two inches and a half long, and ground sharp.
The presiding judge charged the jury, that, if the statement of Zachariah Collins were rejected as untrue, the homicide was undoubtedly a case of murder, that if Collins' testimony were believed, the mere catching the prisoner by the shoulder and using the language attributed to the deceased would not, of itself, amount to a legal provocation; they must be satisfied from the testimony of Collins, taken in connection with the other testimony in the cause, that the deceased had used more violence ??han that stated by the witness Collins, that the jury must be satisfied, that the deceased had jerked the prisoner down as contended for by the prisoner's counsel, that that fact need not be distinctly proved, but might be distinctly and fairly inferred from other facts and circumstances proved, but it ought not to be merely guessed at or conjectured. The Judge further charged, that with regard to the knife, with which the stab was given, some weapons were deadly or otherwise, according to the persons by whom they were used; that a knife, which in the hands of a boy, two years of age, might not be deemed a deadly or dangerous weapon, might in the hands of a strong man be so; that if the jury believed that the knife used by the prisoner was not, in his hands, a deadly weapon, then the homicide was manslaughter, but if they thought, as used by the prisoner, it was calculated to inflict a mortal or a dangerous wound, the killing, in the absence of a legal provocation, was murder.
The prisoner was found guilty of murder and by his counsel moved for a new trial, on the ground that the court had misdirected the jury, both on the ground of the legal provocation and the nature of the weapon used. The motion was refused, and the prisoner appealed.
Attorney General, for the State .
Bynum, for the defendant .
The prisoner complains, that his Honor ought to have instructed the jury, that the provocation received by him was a legal one, and reduced the...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Torain, 284A85
... ... For example, in State v. Collins, 30 N.C. 407 (8 Ired.) (1848), the trial judge left it to the jury to decide whether a knife with a two and one-half inch blade was a deadly weapon. This Court stated that, although the trial judge correctly defined "deadly weapon," ... the error of his Honor consisted in leaving that to the ... ...
-
State v. Sturdivant, 1
...Collins, the Court opined that a pocketknife, having a blade two and a half inches long, was a deadly weapon as a matter of law. 30 N.C. 407, 409, 412 (1848). Accord, State v. Roper, 39 N.C.App. 256, 257, 249 S.E.2d 870, 871 (1978) ("keen bladed pocketknife"). Nevertheless, the evidence in ......
-
State v. Young
...1859). A pocketknife has been recognized in this state as a deadly or dangerous instrumentality as a matter of law. See State v. Collins, 30 N.C. 407 (8 Ired.1848); State v. McKinnon, 54 N.C.App. 475, 283 S.E.2d 555 In the instant case, as in Torain, the weapon was used by the defendant not......
-
State v. Watkins
...to do a corporate hurt to another without the use of anything other than the human person is in law a simple assault." In State v. Collins, 30 N.C. at page 412, 413, court below left it to the jury to say "whether a knife, two inches and a half long, was a deadly weapon." On appeal this cou......