Bradley v. State

Citation89 So. 359,82 Fla. 108
PartiesBRADLEY v. STATE.
Decision Date06 July 1921
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of Florida

Error to Circuit Court, Holmes County; D. J. Jones, Judge.

John H Bradley was convicted and sentenced for murder in the second degree, and he brings error.

Reversed.

Syllabus by the Court

SYLLABUS

It is error to give charge not based on facts in proof. Charges of the court must be based upon facts in proof, and if not so based upon the facts in proof it is error to give them.

Charge based on facts stated therein but not proven is error. Where a charge by the Court to the jury is predicated upon facts stated therein, of which facts there is no proof, such charge is error.

COUNSEL

Mathis & Weeks. of Bonifay, for plaintiff in error.

Rivers H. Buford, Atty. Gen., and J. B Gaines, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

OPINION

TAYLOR J.

The plaintiff in error, John H. Bradley, was indicted and tried in the circuit court of Holmes county for murder in the first degree, was convicted of and sentenced for murder in the second degree, and by writ of error brings this judgment here for review.

There are but two assignments of error presented here; the first that the court below erred in giving to the jury the following charge at the request of the state:

'The court charges you that under the law a man who has been threatened may go wherever his legitimate business calls him, but he has not the right to lie in wait for and slay his adversary; neither may one who seeks a person who intends to kill him, or otherwise brings the danger upon himself, avail himself of the plea of self-defense.'

There is no evidence of anything in this case on the part of the plaintiff in error of the natute of a 'lying in wait' for the deceased. Neither is there any evidence in the case that the plaintiff in error sought the deceased in order to kill him or to have a difficulty with him; but, on the contrary, all of the evidence shows that the plaintiff in error was on, or practically on, his own premises at his home when the fatal difficulty occurred, and the deceased was apparently following him up with a gun in his hands that he had pointed directly at the plaintiff in error at the time the fatal shot was fired by the latter.

Charges of the court must be based upon facts in proof, and if not so based upon the facts in proof it is error to give them; and the court below erred in giving the quoted charge. Irvin v. State, 19 Fla. 872; Washington v. State, 21 Fla. 328: Lewton v. Hower, 35 Fla. 58, 16 South 616; Doyle v. State, 39 Fla. 155, 22 So. 272, 63 Am. St Rep. 159; West v. State, 55 Fla. 200, 46 So. 93.

That it was harmful error to the plaintiff in error we think is patent. The evidence in the case seems to us to...

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6 cases
  • Palmer v. State
    • United States
    • Court of Appeal of Florida (US)
    • 19 d5 Dezembro d5 1975
    ...to issues concerning evidence which has been received at trial. White v. State, 129 Fla. 885, 176 So. 842 (1937); Bradley v. State, 82 Fla. 108, 89 So. 359 (1921); Gadsden v. State, 77 Fla. 627, 82 So. 50 (1919); State v. Brown, 118 So.2d 574, 580 (Fla.App.2d, 1960), cert. disc., 124 So.2d ......
  • Banks v. State
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Florida
    • 20 d4 Abril d4 2017
    ...so based upon the facts in proof[,] it is error to give them; and the court below erred in giving the quoted charge." Bradley v. State , 82 Fla. 108, 89 So. 359, 359 (1921) ; see also Buford v. Wainwright , 428 So.2d 1389, 1390–91 (Fla. 1983) ("[O]nly instructions which have support in the ......
  • Bozeman v. State
    • United States
    • Court of Appeal of Florida (US)
    • 7 d3 Junho d3 2006
    ...Initially, the rule is that if there is evidence on the subject the party is entitled to an instruction. See Bradley v. State, 82 Fla. 108, 89 So. 359, 359 (1921) ("Charges of the court must be based upon facts in proof, and if not so based upon the facts in proof it is error to give them; ......
  • McKennon v. State, 54172
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Florida
    • 23 d4 Julho d4 1981
    ...prove commission of a robbery. We therefore hold that the court erred in instructing on felony murder and robbery. See Bradley v. State, 82 Fla. 108, 89 So. 359 (1921). This holding does not require or justify reversal, however, because the state sought a conviction for murder based upon pr......
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