Knight v. State
| Decision Date | 08 August 1919 |
| Docket Number | A-2890. |
| Citation | 182 P. 734,16 Okla.Crim. 291 |
| Parties | KNIGHT v. STATE. |
| Court | United States State Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma |
Syllabus by the Court.
Evidence of previous malice and premeditation not necessary to sustain a conviction of manslaughter in the first degree, where a homicide is committed in the heat of passion with a deadly weapon, per se.
Documentary evidence secured by illegal search of the room of another is not thereby rendered inadmissible as violative of the Constitution of this state.
Where there is evidence of previously expressed malice, and that friendly relations are thereafter apparently restored, upon the trial of a defendant for the murder of the person against whom the malice was expressed, it is a question of fact under proper instructions, for the jury as to whether or not the restoration of friendly relations between the parties at the time of the homicide, was in good faith on the part of the slayer.
In the trial of a murder charge, erroneous admission of evidence tending to show malice and premeditated design, even though such evidence should be incompetent and prejudicial, becomes harmless, when a verdict of manslaughter is returned by the jury.
The instruction given and the requested instructions refused carefully considered, and found free from error.
Appeal from District Court, Oklahoma County; Geo. W. Clark, Judge.
Jesse Knight was convicted of murder, and appeals. Affirmed.
Ben F Williams, of Norman, and Pruiett, Day & Sniggs, of Oklahoma City, for plaintiff in error.
S. P Freeling, Atty. Gen., and R. McMillan, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
The plaintiff in error, Jesse Knight, hereinafter called defendant, was informed against jointly with his brother for the murder of George E. Long, a severance was granted, and the defendant tried and convicted of manslaughter in the first degree, and sentenced to imprisonment at McAlester for a term of 20 years. To reverse the judgment rendered, he prosecutes this appeal.
The defendant in his brief does not abstract the evidence as required by the rules of this court, and does not seriously contend that the evidence is insufficient to sustain the conviction of manslaughter in the first degree, had in this case. We therefore feel it is unnecessary to recite the voluminous evidence in this case, except in so far as it may be necessary to an intelligent consideration of the fundamental errors alleged to have intervened in the trial of the case. The said evidence is that the defendant, Jesse Knight, and John Knight were brothers, and that a very commendable brotherly affection existed between them especially on the part of the defendant to John, that the defendant resided in Texas and John in this state, that the deceased was fire chief of the S. & S. Company, located at Packingtown, Okl., and had authority to employ all help needed in the fire department of the said company, and that John Knight was employed by him in the said fire department, and that while so employed he contracted syphilis and was discharged, and at the time of being discharged he was abused and kicked by the deceased, and bad blood thereby engendered; that of this and of his physical condition, John fully advised the defendant by letter, and informed him that his having contracted syphilis was due to the evil advice of the deceased; that subsequently John's physical condition improved, and the unfriendly relations between him and the deceased were adjusted, and John was again employed by the deceased in his former position; that it was while the unkindly feelings existed between them that the letters put in evidence, to which the defendant duly excepted, were written by the defendant to John, which said letters expressed great malice toward the deceased, and a determination on the part of the defendant to avenge the wrongs done John by the deceased, saying "that he (defendant) still had his automatic oiled and in good shape." The defendant visited his brother in Packingtown, where for a short time he was employed, and returned to Texas. Subsequently he returned to Packingtown, and some months thereafter he and John visited their parents in Tennessee, where they remained about 60 days and then returned to Packingtown, and John found that his former place in the fire department, in which he desired re-employment, had been filled by another, and John frequently asked others connected with the deceased as to whether or not the deceased intended to again employ him, and as to what he intended to do about it; that on the night of the homicide the defendant and his brother visited the fire hall of the S. & S....
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