Meadows v. United States

• Decision Date: 09 March 1936
• Docket Number: No. 6531.,6531.
• Citation: 65 App. DC 275,82 F.2d 881
• Parties: MEADOWS v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

65 App. DC 275, 82 F.2d 881 (1936)

MEADOWS v. UNITED STATES.

No. 6531.

United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

March 9, 1936.

Harry T. Whelan, of Washington, D. C., for appellant.

Leslie C. Garnett, U. S. Atty., and H. L. Underwood and Louis L. Whitestone, Asst. U. S. Attys., all of Washington, D. C.

Before MARTIN, Chief Justice, and ROBB, VAN ORSDEL, GRONER, and STEPHENS, Associate Justices.

STEPHENS, Associate Justice.

This case is an appeal from a judgment of conviction, in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, of murder in the second degree. The question presented on the appeal is as to the correctness of the instructions given the jury.

The indictment was for murder in the first degree. The defendant's plea was not guilty, the theory thereof being self-defense. The testimony relied upon by the Government in support of its theory that the defendant was guilty of murder in the first degree was, briefly, to the effect that: The defendant on the night of March 5, 1935, had been at a poker gambling establishment at 320 Florida Avenue in the District of Columbia with one Willie Juanita Jordan, with whom, as his "common law" wife he had, at the place of abode of her mother, for some time been living. He had given Willie Juanita Jordan five dollars with which to play poker, but she had not sat in the game. Upon leaving the poker establishment, he and Willie Juanita Jordan were proceeding together along Florida Avenue when he demanded of her the return of the five dollars and tussled with her for the possession of her purse. During this altercation, Alfred Jordan, the deceased, a brother of the woman mentioned, appeared and with his fists knocked the defendant down. The latter, upon getting up and leaving the scene, said that "if he lived he would kill him Alfred Jordan." Thereafter the defendant went to the place where he had been living with Willie Juanita Jordan and her mother and obtained a bag containing some knives, and returned to about the place where the altercation described had occurred. In the meantime Willie Juanita Jordan had gone back with her brother to 320 Florida Avenue and gotten her sister, one Ethel Tucker, and these three proceeded again along Florida Avenue to about the point of the altercation referred to. The defendant approached them with his bag in one hand and the other hand in his pocket. As he passed them he struck at Alfred Jordan with a knife. Ethel Tucker put up her hand to block off the blow and was cut on her finger. Then the defendant seized the brother, Alfred Jordan, and stated that he would get him, and there was another tussle, and the defendant ducked and struck Alfred Jordan with the knife, himself falling into a basement. As a result of the knife thrust, Alfred Jordan died.

On the other hand, the testimony relied upon by the defendant under his plea of self-defense was that: He was by occupation a railroad dining car chef and as such kept in his possession a grip containing the tools of his trade, to wit, a large butcher knife, a palette knife, a boning knife, and a meat fork. He had been living for some time with Willie Juanita Jordan at her mother's as above described, but on the afternoon of the day in question, he had determined to change his place of abode, and had moved most of his effects, but not his clothing and the grip of knives. After some drinking in the evening by the defendant and Willie Juanita Jordan and her sister, Ethel Tucker, at the abode of the mother, he and Willie Juanita Jordan and Ethel Tucker went to a cafeteria where they had beer and sandwiches and then to the gambling establishment above referred to, Ethel Tucker remaining there and the defendant and Willie Juanita Jordan leaving and proceeding along Florida Avenue as above stated. The tussle for the purse occurred and during it Alfred Jordan appeared on the scene and knocked the defendant down four or five times, the defendant being hit on the shoulder, neck, and twice on the head. The defendant on getting up and leaving made no statement to the effect that he would kill Jordan. He went back to the place where he had been living to get the remainder of his personal belongings. Willie Juanita Jordan's mother noticed that he bore evidence of having been in a fight, wanted to know whether or not he had hurt Willie and refused to let him have his clothes. Thereupon he took his grip and a pair of shoes and left. He did not at that time open the grip or take out a knife. He started back towards 320 Florida Avenue to pay two dollars he owed there. As he left the house the mother of Willie and Alfred Jordan stated that if he had hurt Willie she would make Alfred kill him. She followed him out of the house. He stopped at 124 Florida Avenue to get rid of her, but she continued to follow him. He then saw Willie Juanita Jordan, Ethel Tucker and Alfred Jordan, the latter walking in the middle. It was dark on the side where he was walking and he was upon them before he saw them. Having already been knocked down as above described, he was afraid of a beating and tried to walk around them. As he passed them, Alfred Jordan stepped out from between the two women and struck him on the right side of the head, knocked him down, and kicked him "in a delicate spot" five or six times while he was down. Ethel Tucker also kicked him in the face while he was down, causing his face to be skinned and his eye bruised. He tried to get loose and failed. The grip was still in his hand. He scrambled around, opened it and pulled out the first knife he found, which was the boning knife above described, and while on the ground raised up and struck at Jordan once, but he did not know what part of the body he struck. Alfred Jordan had been twisting the defendant's leg, but upon being struck with the knife, turned defendant's foot loose and the defendant was able to get up and run. After his arrest the defendant was himself taken to the hospital. There was evidence to the effect that he had been beaten up around the face and body and that he was kept in the infirmary for about twelve days where his face and his leg, which as said had been twisted by Alfred Jordan, were treated. Alfred Jordan was younger and stronger and heavier than the defendant; the latter was suffering from a shrapnel wound in the leg and had lung trouble from gas, both as a result of war service in France, and had been rated as fifty percent disabled by the Veterans Bureau. He was in fear of Alfred Jordan, having been told that Jordan had beaten Tucker (apparently Ethel Tucker's husband) and one Chapman before, and having been told that Jordan had fastened a white man¹ in an elevator and beaten him up. The defendant knew that Alfred Jordan and the others could whip him. The wound from the effects of which Jordan died was in the upper part of his right thigh.

Under familiar rules both of the parties to the cause were entitled to instructions covering their respective theories of the case, there being evidence to support each theory; and the defendant, therefore, was entitled to have an instruction upon the theory that the killing was done in self-defense, and the Government upon the theory that it was not. After properly explaining the case to the jury and instructing in the usual manner upon the presumption of innocence, the burden of proof, the definition of reasonable doubt, the definition of murder in the first degree, and of the included defenses of murder in the second degree and manslaughter, the court, in respect of self-defense, instructed the jury as follows:

"As I have indicated, the defendant has interposed a plea of `not guilty.' This allows him the benefit of every doubt which naturally arises in your minds, within reason, upon a full and fair consideration of all the facts and circumstances shown in the proof. The defendant particularly relies upon what, in law, we call the plea of self-defense. With respect to that plea, you are told, as a matter of law, that if the accused did not provoke the assault, and had, at the time of the occurrence, reasonable ground to believe — and in good faith believed — that the deceased intended to take his life or to do him great bodily harm, the defendant was not obliged to retreat nor to consider whether he could safely retreat, but was entitled to stand his ground and meet any attack made upon him by the deceased, in such manner and with such force as, under all the circumstances he, at the moment, honestly believed and had reasonable grounds to believe was necessary to save his own life or to protect himself from serious bodily harm.

"As having a bearing upon this plea, you are told that both the accused and the decedent had equal rights to be in the street where this thing happened. You are further told that assault with bare fists only, does not of itself justify one, in repelling such assault, to resort to the use of a dangerous or deadly weapon, in a manner calculated to produce death or serious bodily harm. There must be something more than such an assault with fists. There must be the honest belief, on the part of the defendant, that death or serious bodily harm was imminent at the hands of the decedent.

"You are further told that the defense of self-defense is not available to one who provokes the difficulty. It therefore becomes important for you, in giving consideration to this branch of the case, to consider and determine, from the evidence, who was the aggressor — the accused or the decedent.

* * * * * *

"The burden of proof, as I have said, is upon the Government. I have announced that the defendant relies upon the plea of self-defense. That defense relates to the situation as it honestly seemed to the defendant at the time he did the act complained of. No burden is placed upon the defendant to prove such defense. The burden, as I have indicated, rests with the Government throughout, to satisfy you, beyond a reasonable doubt, that he is guilty of...