Blackledge v. State

• Decision Date: 07 April 1930
• Docket Number: 28398
• Citation: 157 Miss. 33,127 So. 684
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: BLACKLEDGE v. STATE

127 So. 684

157 Miss. 33

BLACKLEDGE v. STATE

No. 28398

Supreme Court of Mississippi, Division A

April 7, 1930

APPEAL from circuit court of Jasper county, HON. W. L. CRANFORD Judge.

Artis Blackledge was convicted for manslaughter, and he appeals. Reversed, and defendant discharged.

Case reversed and appellant discharged.

Sam Whitman and J. L. Thompson, both of Bay Springs, and Watkins Watkins & Eager and Hardy R. McGowen, all of Jackson, for appellant.

Where the evidence disclosed that defendant killed deceased in defense of his mother from deadly assault a peremptory instruction for the defendant should have been given.

Strahan v. State, 143 Miss. 519; Brown v. State, 153 Miss 737; Wesley v. State, 153 Miss. 357.

Where there is absolutely nothing in the whole record tending to show in the slightest degree any motive whatever for the homicide except a desire on the part of appellant to protect his defenseless mother from an unprovoked and murderous assault upon her by deceased, a peremptory instruction for the defendant should be given.

Sides v. State, 96 Miss. 638; Houston v. State, 117 Miss 311; Strahon v. State, 143 Miss. 519.

Forrest B. Jackson, Assistant Attorney-General, for the state.

Where there is a sharp conflict in the testimony the verdict of the jury should not be disturbed.

Martin v. State, 112 Miss. 365, 73 So. 64; Hall v. State, 128 Miss. 641, 91 So. 397.

Argued orally by J. L. Thompson, for appellant, and by Forrest B. Jackson, for appellee.

OPINION

McGowen, J.

On an indictment for murder, the appellant, Artis Blackledge, was tried, convicted by the jury of manslaughter, and sentenced by the court to serve a term of ten years in the state penitentiary. He appeals here.

The appellant argues many assignments of error, but we shall discuss only one. The appellant asked for, and was refused, a peremptory instruction. We shall not make a detailed statement of the facts.

The state offered evidence showing that on a certain night Anse Hosey, the man alleged to have been killed by Blackledge, was brought home in an automobile and assisted into his dwelling by Levi Gregory, who told Hosey's wife that he did not know how Hosey came by the fatal blow on his head. This occurred about an hour after dark, and later Levi Gregory passed the house in his car and stopped; it was shown by the testimony of the widow, without objection, that he stated that one of the Blackledge boys hit her husband. It was shown by the physician that Hosey's skull was crushed, and it was further shown that he died the next morning in the hospital.

The deputy sheriff testified that he went to where the homicide is said to have occurred and found a piece of scantling, two by four, in two pieces, part of the break being old and part fresh; and that he found no other evidence of the difficulty. The deputy sheriff said further that a day or two after the appellant was arrested he (Blackledge) admitted to him that he was the "fellow who hit the deceased, " and said he did not know whether he hit him with the scantling or not, but that he did hit him with a stick. It was further shown for the state by the sheriff that he went to the scene, and that a number of people were standing there, and the sheriff asked if anybody knew about what had happened there the night before, and the defendant being present made no answer, but the father of the defendant said he (the father) did not know anything about it.

Upon this testimony the state rested. Whereupon the defendant said in his own behalf that the deceased, Hosey, was standing near the road in company with appellant's father and Gregory, Sr., and he heard some cursing and went down to see about it; that the deceased was drunk, staggering about the road, and cursing; that after he got there appellant's mother, his brother about fourteen years old, and Miss Daisy Wade came up; his mother had a flashlight, and Daisy Wade had a lantern; the brother led the way. The little brother said to the deceased: "'Mr. Anse, shut up your knife and put it in your pocket, ' and Mr. Anse Hosey says 'God damn you, I will kill you' and struck at him with his knife, and my mother jumped and jerked my little brother back and says 'don't cut my boy' and he says 'God damn you I will kill you, ' and made a stroke at her, and my father caught my mother and jerked her back and I says 'don't you cut my mother, Mr. Hosey, ' and I saw he wasn't going to stop and they weren't going to have time to get out of the way and I picked up the stick and hit him and he fell and I turned to help with my mother." Appellant identified the shorter piece of scantling as looking like the one he struck Hosey with. There had never been any quarrel or difficulty between the deceased and appellant. The appellant stated that Hosey did not stop striking at his mother with his knife, and that he reached back, got the stick, and hit him. The deceased was assisted to a car and carried away to his home.

There were six or seven other witnesses who testified substantially to the same effect--Daisy Wade, Sam Gregory, Wilson Blackledge, Vesta Blackledge, James Artis Wade, and Levi Gregory.

Mr. G W. Hosey, district attorney, a brother of the...