State v. Fuller

• Decision Date: 18 October 1904
• Citation: 100 N.W. 1114,125 Iowa 212
• Parties: STATE v. FULLER.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

125 Iowa 212

100 N.W. 1114

STATE

v.FULLER.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Oct. 18, 1904.

Appeal from District Court, Monroe County; F. W. Eichelberger, Judge.

The defendant was indicted for murder in the first degree. He was tried on the indictment, and convicted of manslaughter. He appeals. Reversed.Clarkson & Bates, for appellant.

Chas. W. Mullan, Atty. Gen., and Lawrence De Graff, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

SHERWIN, J.

The defendant Fuller, Robert Rowe, the man whom he is charged with killing, James Campbell, and William Cobley had an altercation over the possession of a pail of beer, during which Rowe was struck on the head with a piece of 2x4 scantling and injured, so that he soon died from the effects thereof. The state's theory of the transaction was that the fatal blow was struck by the defendant, and there was evidence tending to support such claim. On the other hand, the defendant testified that he did not strike Rowe, and that he did not know that he had been struck by any one until after he had fallen, and that Cobley then told him that he had struck Rowe with the piece of 2x4.

In an instruction, which is conceded to be correct as an abstract statement of the law, the court submitted to the jury the question of the defendant's guilt of murder in the first degree. This instruction is assailed on the ground that there was no evidence of premeditation or deliberation upon which a verdict of murder in the first degree could be based, and that the instruction was therefore erroneous. It is well settled that premeditation and deliberation need not exist for any particular length of time before the killing. It is sufficient if there was such deliberation and premeditation immediately before the fatal injury was inflicted, though it may have existed but for an instant of time. State v. McPherson, 114 Iowa, 492, 87 N. W. 421;State v. Johnson, 8 Iowa, 525, 74 Am. Dec. 321. The evidence tends to prove that the club with which Rowe was struck was secured and carried to the place of the conflict by Cobley, and that it was retained by him until trouble arose over the beer. If this be true, and if the blow was in fact struck by the defendant, Fuller, he must have obtained possession of the club from Cobley with the intent to use it in the affray, and this in itself would be evidence of deliberation and premeditation. Hill v. Com., 2 Grat. 594.

We have read the record with the care which the importance of the case, both to the state and to the defendant, demands, and we reach the conclusion that the evidence before the court and jury justified the instructions complained of. We are not called upon to determine whether the evidence of deliberation and premeditation was sufficient to support a verdict of murder in the first degree, because the defendant was acquitted...