Nelson v. State
| Decision Date | 30 April 1873 |
| Citation | 65 Tenn. 418 |
| Parties | NELSON v. THE STATE. |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
No record to be found.
The prisoner was tried upon an indictment for the murder of Milley Ford, and convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to five years imprisonment in the penitentiary, and this motion for a new trial being refused he has appealed in error.
The proof of the witnesses as set out in the bill of exceptions shows that the prisoner, on the 25th of December last, had been shooting a small pistol about the yard at the house where the deceased resided in Memphis--shooting Christmas guns.
Harriet Faim, who lived in the same house with the deceased, says: “He,” meaning the prisoner,
Henry Thomas, who was in the room with the deceased, says: “George Nelson came into the room with the pistol in his hands; he went up to Milley and said: Milley, I want you to hug me, or I want you to kiss me. She said I won't do it. He then said if you don't do it I will shoot you. He then put both arms around her, and as he did so, the pistol fired. * * * As the pistol fired, she fell over into George's arms, and sank to the floor. George said, “for God's sake forgive me, Milley; I didn't think it would hurt you.” He said to me, “go, Henry, and bring the doctor; please go, Henry, quick!”
The statement of this witness is corroborated by other witnesses. The proof makes it most probable that the pistol was not loaded with a bullet, but with a paper or other “wad.” The wound was in the back, below the shoulder, the orifice ranging back to the spine. The parties had been entirely friendly previous to that time. Without setting out the evidence in detail, we think it fails to show any purpose to take the life of the deceased, or to inflict any injury upon her. We understand the threat to shoot or kill the deceased to have been a jest, or at least the shooting he did not intend to be of a dangerous character. This was the understanding by the witnesses, for they evidently did not think...
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Banks v. United States
...different degrees of manslaughter, which could be charged to a jury as separate offenses. 350 S.W.3d at 906-07. See also Nelson v. State, 65 Tenn. 418, 421 (1873) (explaining that Tennessee's manslaughter statute "ma[de] two separate grades of felony of manslaughter, and affixe[d] different......
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Hughes v. State
...manner and without due caution, and that death was the natural or probable result of such act. Lee v. State, 41 Tenn. 62; Nelson v. State, 65 Tenn. 418; Manier v. State, 65 Tenn. 595; Copeland v. State, 154 Tenn. 7, 285 S.W. 565, 49 A.L.R. 605; Wade v. State, 174 Tenn. 248, 124 S.W.2d 710; ......
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Bartlett v. State
...manner and without due caution, and that death was the natural or probable result of such act. Lee v. State, 41 Tenn. 62; Nelson v. State, 65 Tenn. 418; Manier v. State, 65 Tenn. 595; Copeland v. State, 154 Tenn. 7, 285 S.W. 565, 49 A.L.R. 605; Wade v. State, 174 Tenn. 248, 124 S.W.2d 710; ......
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Bryant v. State
...of an ordinary man, and thus negative malice. T.C.A. § (sic) 39--2409. Whitsett v. State, 201 Tenn. 317, 299 S.W.2d 2, 6; Nelson v. State, 65 Tenn. 418, 421.' Smith v. State, 212 Tenn. 510, 370 S.W.2d 543. In Cooper v. State, 210 Tenn. 63, 76, 356 S.W.2d 405, 411, the Court said: 'The gener......