Long v. State
| Decision Date | 30 September 1905 |
| Citation | 89 S.W. 93,76 Ark. 493 |
| Parties | LONG v. STATE |
| Court | Arkansas Supreme Court |
Appeal from Hempstead Circuit Court JOEL DYER CONWAY, Judge.
Affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.
Robert L. Rogers, Attorney General, for appellee.
Defendant, pleading to the indictment, waived all irregularities. 29 Ark. 165; 42 Ark. 94; 62 Ark. 303. The presumption is that the grand jury was properly impaneled. 60 Ark. 450.
This case has been before the court on a former appeal, and is reported in 72 Ark. 427. After it was remanded the defendant was put on trial in the Hempstead Circuit Court and convicted of voluntary manslaughter, his punishment fixed at two years in the penitentiary, and he again appealed to this court.
Numerous exceptions were saved to rulings of the court in the trial below, but we are not favored with an argument on behalf of the defendant pressing them upon our attention. Most of these exceptions relate to rulings of the court in giving certain instructions asked by the State, and in refusing others asked by the defendant. Upon consideration of all the instructions given and refused, we are of the opinion that no error was committed in this respect.
Defendant introduced several witnesses who testified that the deceased had the reputation of being a quarrelsome and dangerous man. His counsel then proposed to ask each of these witnesses whether, from the reputation of the deceased, he was a person who would likely carry into execution a threat seriously made; but the court refused to permit the question to be asked. The question was not competent, as the statement sought was entirely a matter of opinion of the witnesses. We know of no principle upon which this could be admissible. In homicide cases the character of the deceased is, under some circumstances, admissible, but evidence of his disposition or inclination to do right or wrong is always rejected. Underhill on Crim. Ev. § 325.
The testimony adduced on the trial was sufficient to warrant the verdict.
We find no error, and the judgment is affirmed.
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Kelley v. State
...in permitting the State to prove by witnesses that the general reputation of deceased for morality was good. Underhill on Cr. Ev., § 325; 76 Ark. 493; Cr. Ev., § 234; 75 Ark. 297; Bishop's New Cr. Proc., vol. 3, § 612; 21 Cyc. 908. The general rule in homicide cases is that it is not compet......
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Carter v. State
... ... circumstantial facts which are a part of the res ... gestae whenever they are sufficiently connected with the ... acts and conduct of the parties, so as to cast light on that ... darkest of all subjects, the motives of the human ... heart." See also, Jackson v. State, ... supra; Long v. State, 76 Ark ... 493, 89 S.W. 93 ... It ... follows that the court erred in excluding the offered ... testimony as to the uncommunicated threats of Woodfork ... against the appellant, and also the offered testimony of ... witnesses as to the character of the deceased ... ...
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Carter v. State
...so as to cast light on that darkest of all subjects, the motives of the human heart." See, also, Jackson v. State, supra; Long v. State, 76 Ark. 493, 89 S. W. 93, 91 S. W. 26. It follows that the court erred in excluding the offered testimony as to the uncommunicated threats of Woodfork aga......
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Wilson v. State
...fired the fatal shot, and to show who was the probable aggressor; * * *". A similar instruction was approved by this court in Long v. State, 76 Ark. 493, 89 S.W. 93, 91 S.W. 26. We think it clear that what was meant by the court in the words "state of mind of the defendant" was the motive o......