Commonwealth v. Devlin
| Decision Date | 03 January 1879 |
| Citation | 126 Mass. 253 |
| Parties | Commonwealth v. William H. Devlin |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
Middlesex. Indictment in two counts for the murder of Hannah Devlin, at Lowell, on December 8, 1877. The first count charged that the murder was caused by the defendant by beating, stamping and jumping upon the said Hannah. The second count alleged that the murder was caused by the defendant "in some way and manner, and by some means acts, instruments and weapons, to the jurors unknown."
At the trial before Ames and Endicott, JJ., evidence was offered tending to prove the truth of the charge contained in the first count of the indictment; and it was contended by the government that the crime was committed by the defendant with extreme atrocity and cruelty. In the charge to the jury, the court, among other things, instructed the jury as follows "If upon the evidence you are convinced that the defendant caused the death of the deceased by inflicting severe and violent blows by stamping and jumping on her person, and kicking her while prostrate on the floor upon the head, neck, chest, sides and abdomen, and these acts were repeated at intervals during the afternoon and evening, by reason of which she received fatal injuries of which she finally died, after prolonged agony, it will be competent for you to find the defendant guilty of murder committed with extreme atrocity and cruelty, and consequently of murder in the first degree."
The jury returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree; and, to so much of the charge as is above stated, the defendant alleged exceptions.
Exceptions overruled.
W. B. Gale & W. H. Anderson, for the defendant.
C. R. Train, Attorney General, for the Commonwealth.
OPINION
The statutes of this Commonwealth, which define two degrees of murder, declare that, when "committed with extreme atrocity or cruelty," the crime is murder in the first degree. It is for the jury to find the degree, when an issue of fact is joined at the trial, upon a plea of not guilty. Gen Sts. c. 160, §§ 1, 3. Green v. Commonwealth, 12 Allen 155.
The question of degree was here submitted to the jury, and the only exception taken is to the instruction, that if, upon the evidence, the jury should find certain facts proved, it would be competent for them to find the defendant guilty of murder committed with extreme atrocity and cruelty, and...
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Commonwealth v. Di Stasio
...of rist degree murder would be warranted have been held proper in several cases. Commonwealth v. Desmarteau, 16 Gray, 1, 10;Commonwealth v. Devlin, 126 Mass. 253, 254;Commonwealth v. Gilbert, 165 Mass. 45, 54, 42 N.E. 336;Commonwealth v. Madeiros, 255 Mass. 304, 311, 315, 151 N.E. 297, 47 A......
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...v. Bartolini, 299 Mass. 503, 515-516, 13 N.E.2d 382, cert. denied, 304 U.S. 565, 58 S.Ct. 950, 82 L.Ed. 1531 (1938); Commonwealth v. Devlin, 126 Mass. 253, 255 (1879). Surely, if a malicious mind may be considered as evidence that a defendant committed a murder with extreme atrocity or crue......
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...life imprisonment, or extreme atrocity or cruelty -- would justify capital punishment. See St. 1858, c. 154.In 1879, in Commonwealth v. Devlin, 126 Mass. 253, 255 (1879), this court first articulated the meaning of extreme atrocity or cruelty:"The crime of murder always implies atrocity and......
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Palakiko v. Harper
...appellants are in a position to argue as to whether the statute meets the required standards of certainty, we note that in Commonwealth v. Devlin, 126 Mass. 253, referred to in note 35, supra, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in 1879 gave further definition to the meaning of the ......