Hall v. State
| Decision Date | 25 February 1893 |
| Citation | 21 S.W. 368 |
| Parties | HALL v. STATE. |
| Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
Appeal from district court, Tarrant county; S. P. Greene, Judge.
John Hall was convicted of assault with intent to kill, and appeals. Affirmed.
R. L. Henry, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
Appellant was tried for and convicted of an assault with intent to murder his wife, and the jury assessed his punishment at a term of six years in the state penitentiary, and from which conviction he prosecutes an appeal.
The prosecution, over objection, was permitted to prove by the wife that defendant assaulted her at Syracuse, Kan., in 1887; that she was sick; that defendant rode up to the house where she was, on a horse, got off, came in, and caught her little girl by the hair and dragged her around, and then struck his wife over the head with a gun, and knocked her down, and jumped on her, and beat her horribly." The defendant's theory of this case was that he was too drunk at the time of the assault to form or entertain the specific intent to kill, and that the assault arose from a sudden impulse, and not from malice. To meet this, as well as to prove motive and malice, the state was permitted to prove the acts of ill treatment and bad conduct by defendant towards his wife running back through several years, including threats to take her life; that they separated four times, the last of which separations occurred at Hot Springs, Ark., in April, 1892; that they had not lived together since the latter separation; and that each reconciliation occurred at his solicitation. To meet defendant's theory of temporary insanity produced from the recent use of intoxicating liquor, all such acts, previous ill treatment, and threats were proper and legitimate testimony, as well as to show malice, ill will, and motive on his part, and also as explanatory of his real purpose in making the assault alleged. The assault objected to was so connected with the other facts of the case as to render it admissible for the purposes indicated. Mr. Wharton says. "On the trial of a husband for the murder of his wife the state has a right to prove a course of ill treatment by the husband of the wife." Whart. Crim. Ev. (9th Ed.) § 51, and note 3, for collated authorities. Again, he says: "Long ill treatment by husband of wife, misconduct by him, leading to a suit against him by his wife to compel good behavior, and violent quarrels between husband and wife, are relevant to prove motive in cases of marital homicide, though, as instances of such quarrels are very numerous, generally expending their force in words, such proof is entitled to little weight, unless connected in some way with the fatal wound." Id. § 786, and notes 3, 4, 5, and 6, for supporting authorities. In McCann v. People, 3 Parker, Crim. R. 272, it was ruled that evidence was admissible on the question of motive to show that about six months before the homicide the...
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