Nye v. People

• Decision Date: 13 October 1876
• Citation: Nye v. People, 35 Mich. 16 (Mich. 1876)
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court
• Parties: Emory Nye v. The People

35 Mich. 16

Emory Nye v. The People

Supreme Court of Michigan

October 13, 1876

Heard October 3, 1876

Error to Calhoun Circuit.

Judgment reversed, and a new trial granted.

T. G Pray, for plaintiff in error.

Andrew J. Smith, Attorney General, for the People.

OPINION

Campbell, J.:

Nye was charged with the murder of Robert Molyneaux, and was convicted of murder in the first degree.Many questions arose on the trial, but the objections urged in this court are confined to such as bear on the quality of the offense as murder or manslaughter.

The homicide occurred in a sudden affray.Nye and his co-defendant, Betts, were playing cards with an elderly man named Chambers when Molyneaux interfered in a somewhat offensive way on a claim, according to some of testimony, that they were imposing on, or likely to ill-treat the old man.There was nothing to indicate that they were doing so, and we have found nothing to indicate very clearly that Molyneaux had any reason to think so.His interference provoked Nye and Betts, and after some harsh language, Molyneaux and Betts proceeded to take off their coats for a scuffle.Betts struck at Molyneaux, who was a powerful man, and who knocked him a considerable distance.He also knocked Nye down in the same way, Nye having, according to most of the witnesses, struck at him first.Nye then stabbed him with a knife which he had in his pocket, and which was apparently one calculated to be used as a weapon.

The court, among other things, told the jury that if Nye and Betts, or if Betts alone, began the attack, the offense would be murder.

The court also, in defining malice, defined it as including "anger, hatred, revenge, and every other unlawful and unjustifiable motive."And the jury were also instructed that while murder in the first degree in ordinary cases required a willful, deliberate, premeditated design to take life, that design might be formed an instant before the act.

The record indicates that the trial took place under much excitement, and we do not think it desirable to enlarge upon the many points which are presented.Upon the facts it was legally competent for the jury to have found a verdict of manslaughter or of murder in the second degree, according to their view of the provocation and its effects, and according to the view they took of some inconsistent testimony.

It was error to hold that Nye must be held guilty of murder if Betts began the assault.Without discussing under what circumstances the first assailant may be guilty of no higher crime than manslaughter, it cannot certainly be claimed...