Dixon v. State
| Decision Date | 09 March 1914 |
| Docket Number | 17129 |
| Citation | 64 So. 468,106 Miss. 697 |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
| Parties | JOE DIXON v. STATE |
APPEAL from the circuit court of Bolivar county, HON. T. B. WATKINS Judge.
Joe Dixon was convicted of murder and appeals.
The facts are fully stated in the opinion of the court.
Overruled.
H. K Murray, attorney for appellant.
Geo. H Ethridge, assistant attorney-general, for the state.
The record in this case is lost.
Appellant having been convicted of the crime of murder, appealed to this court, and the judgment of the court below was at a former day affirmed. His counsel now suggest that we erred in so doing, for many reasons, three of which seem to be that the court below erred: First, in granting the state's first and only instruction; second, in not giving the jury a definition of the crime of murder; and, third, in granting the instructions requested by appellant.
The instruction granted at the request of the state charged the jury that "if you believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant deliberately murdered the deceased, you will find him guilty, and may return either of the following verdicts," etc. The objection to this instruction seems to be that it omits the qualifying words "without authority of law," and the cases of Ivy v. State, 84 Miss. 264, 36 So. 265, and Rutherford v. State, 100 Miss. 832, 57 So. 224, are cited as establishing that the omission constitutes fatal error. In these cases the instructions condemned charged the jury that: "Murder is the killing of a human being with the deliberate design to effect the death of the person killed." This, of course, was an incomplete definition of murder, because the killing, however deliberate, was not murder unless it was done "without authority of law." The instruction in the case at bar however, made no attempt to define murder, and the use of the word "deliberate" therein was mere surplusage. If it had instructed the jury to find appellant guilty if he "deliberately killed the deceased," the objection waived would be well taken.
No instruction was asked by either the state or defendant requesting the court to define the crime of murder, and therefore, under section 793 of the Code, it was without power to so instruct them; consequently it did not err in not so doing, for error cannot be predicated upon the failure of the court to do a thing which it is expressly...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Pullen v. State
... ... at the request of defendant, but he cannot complain of such ... fact because one cannot complain of an erroneous instruction ... which he, himself, procured the court to give ... Long v ... State, 163 Miss. 535, 141 So. 591; Dixon v. State, ... 106 Miss. 697, 64 So. 468 ... Argued ... orally by Mary Sue Brannon and J. W. Conger, for appellant, ... and by W. D. Conn, Jr., and C. E. Morgan, for the state ... OPINION ... [175 ... Miss. 817] McGowen, J ... The ... ...
-
Columbus & Greenville R. Co. v. Lee
... ... and Phrases, 4748 ... Failure ... of Mike Buford to testify is a novel point. We might go ... outside of the record and state a number of reasons why Mike ... didn't testify. We content ourselves with the record, ... however by saying that neither his availability nor his ... The ... defendant cannot complain that the court did not give the ... counterinstruction because he didn't ask it. Dixon v ... State, 64 So. 468; Lindsay v. Nix, 108 Miss ... 814; R. R. v. Campbell, 114 Miss. 803. Clearly ... plaintiff is not required to ... ...
-
Cosey v. State
... ... Canterbury ... v. State, 90 Miss. 279, 43 So. 678; Edwards v ... Gulfport, 95 Miss. 148, 49 So. 620; Harvey v ... State, 95 Miss. 601, 49 So. 268; Williams v ... State, 95 Miss. 671, 49 So. 513; James v ... State, 106 Miss. 353, 63 So. 669; Dixon v ... State, 106 Miss. 697, 64 So. 468; Akroyd v ... State, 107 Miss. 51, 64 So. 936; Pringle v ... State, 108 Miss. 802, 67 So. 455; Simmons v ... State, 106 Miss. 732, 64 So. 721; Matthews v ... State, 108 Miss. 72, 66 So. 325; Davenport v ... State, 121 Miss. 548, 83 So. 738; McLeod ... ...
-
McLeod v. State
... ... murder, he cannot complain that the court did not instruct on ... manslaughter where the appellant presented no instruction ... thereon, as the court cannot grant instructions unless they ... are in writing and requested to be given. In Dixon ... v. State, 106 Miss. 697, 64 So. 468, it was held by ... this court that under this section [130 Miss. 100] the court ... cannot grant instructions not asked for, and the failure of ... the court to give an instruction defining murder when neither ... party requested it is not error. To ... ...