State v. Conway
Decision Date | 08 June 1895 |
Citation | 40 P. 661,55 Kan. 323 |
Parties | THE STATE OF KANSAS v. JAMES CONWAY |
Court | Kansas Supreme Court |
Appeal from Atchison District Court.
JAMES CONWAY, having been convicted of burglary and grand larceny appeals. The opinion herein, filed June 8, 1895, states the material facts.
Judgment reversed and cause remanded.
W. P Waggener, for appellant.
C. D Walker, county attorney, for The State.
OPINION
James Conway was convicted of the offenses of burglery and grand larceny, and the punishment adjudged was imprisonment at hard labor in the penitentiary for the term of six years. In his appeal he assigns the rulings of the court upon the instructions as error, and the transcript contains sufficient of the evidence to present the errors complained of. It is first contended that the refusal of several instructions that were requested upon the subject of circumstantial evidence was prejudicial error. While the charge of the court did not call special attention to circumstantial or any other particular kind of evidence, it is true that the instructions given were so broad and general as to cover all the testimony that was offered. In view of the fact, however, that the testimony was largely circumstantial, the court might properly have laid down the rules of law governing that class of evidence and thus have assisted the jury in correctly applying the law to the facts of the case. Whether the omission of this duty is of itself a sufficient ground for a reversal it is not important to decide. The principal complaint is based upon the charge of the court with respect to the defense of an alibi. Testimony was offered tending to show that the defendant was at another and different place when the crime was committed, and did not know of or participate in the same. The court refused to give an instruction to the effect that the defendant is not required to prove the defense of an alibi beyond a reasonable doubt to entitle him to an acquittal; that it is sufficient if the evidence upon that point raises a reasonable doubt of his presence at the time and place of the commission of the crime charged. The court in its general charge stated that some evidence had been given tending to show that the defendant was not present at the time the offense was committed, but was at his home, in bed, several miles away from the scene of the crime and knew nothing of it...
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