Jones v. State
| Decision Date | 27 March 1911 |
| Docket Number | 14,960 |
| Citation | 54 So. 724,98 Miss. 899 |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
| Parties | ANDREW JONES v. STATE |
APPEAL from the circuit court of Chicasaw county, HON.W. A. ROANE Judge.
Andrew Jones was convicted of murder and appeals.
The facts are fully stated in the opinion of the court.
Reversed and remanded. Reversed and remanded.
Leftwich & Tubb, for appellant.
The third written charge granted at the request of the district attorney is erroneous because it assumes, and in granting it the court assumed that the only possible verdict was that of murder. We will show presently that this record will not sustain a verdict of murder, and this charge thus couched as it was forbade the jury to bring in any other verdict than that of murder. It is true that appellant had carried his shotgun with him when he went with his sister, but it is shown that he went from the field where he had his gun simply carried it with him to town, but taking it that he did carry it in self-defense, he had a right to do it in view of the violent threats of the deceased which were communicated to the appellant by his mother before he left home. When appellant was assaulted on his returning home, he was driving along the main road, molesting nobody, he was violently assailed by the deceased who tried to catch his mules by their bridles, and failing in that, snatched the lines out of his hands, and then deceased tried to snatch his sister out of the buggy, with his Winchester lying by the roadside. It is true the state's witnesses, evidently by premeditated agreement, deny that Smith had a Winchester there, but whether he did or not, his violent assault on the appellant and his sister, a half or a quarter of a mile from his house in the public road, reduces the crime, if any were committed, to manslaughter, for whatever the appellant did, he did in the heat of passion unpremeditated and under great provocation. The facts all show that he could very easily have killed Smith, if he had wished, but he lowered his gun and shot him in the flesh of the leg.
Carl Fox, assistant attorney-general, for appellee.
It is said that the third written charge granted the state "is erroneous because it assumes, and in granting it the court assumed, that the only possible verdict was that of murder." We do not think the criticism is borne out by the instruction itself, which begins "The court charges the jury for the state that if they agree that the defendant is guilty of murder, they may return either of the following verdicts, to-wit," etc.
The fifteenth instruction granted the defendant was that the jury might find the defendant guilty of manslaughter. The jury of course, had to take all of the instructions together; and if they had found the defendant guilty of manslaughter, they would never have even reached the point of considering instruction No. 3 granted the state, because they could not reach that point at all if they had agreed that the defendant was guilty of murder.
The appellant, Andrew Jones, was convicted of the murder of his brother-in-law, Merriwether Smith, and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The wife of the deceased is a sister of appellant. The deceased was a powerful man physically,...
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Wells v. State
...(1946). Accordingly, the court erred in submitting to the jury the question of whether appellant was guilty of murder. Jones v. State, 98 Miss. 899, 54 So. 724 (1910); Travis v. State, 9 So.2d 880 (Miss.1942); Cutrer v. State, 207 Miss. 806, 43 So.2d 385 (1949). The judgment is reversed, an......
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McLeod v. State
...were raised. A conviction of murder on evidence which raises only issues of self-defense or manslaughter will be reversed. Jones v. State, 98 Miss. 899, 54 So. 724. the evidence in the prosecution for homicide does not warrant conviction of a greater offense than manslaughter, the court mus......
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Mcleod v. State.
... ... this killing was done in the heat of passion, and only issues ... of selfdefense or manslaughter were raised. A conviction of ... murder on evidence which raises only issues of self-defense ... or manslaughter will be reversed. Jones v ... State, 98 Miss. 899, 54 So. 724 ... Where ... the evidence in the prosecution for homicide does not warrant ... conviction of a greater offense than manslaughter, the court ... must instruct as to manslaughter though not requested so to ... do. May v. State, 89 ... ...
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Lott v. State, 89-KP-0525
...any unlawful act, or after such attempt shall have failed," is no more than manslaughter. Miss.Code Ann. Sec. 97-3-31; Jones v. State, 98 Miss. 899, 54 So. 724 (1910). Lott's conduct, as far as the record reflects, simply does not fall within the definition of the crime charged. United Stat......