State v. Lockwood
| Decision Date | 30 September 1909 |
| Court | Court of General Sessions of Delaware |
| Parties | STATE v. ROSS LOCKWOOD |
Court of General Sessions, New Castle County, September Term, 1909.
INDICTMENT for ATTEMPT TO COMMIT ARSON .
Verdict, guilty with a recommendation to mercy.
Josiah O. Wolcott, Deputy Attorney-General for the State.
William G. Jones for the prisoner.
OPINION
WOOLLEY, J. charging the jury:
Gentlemen of the jury:--Ross Lockwood, the prisoner at the bar, is charged in this indictment with having attempted wilfully and maliciously to set on fire a dwelling house, in which there were at the time human beings. The felony, the perpetration of which the prisoner is charged to have attempted, is arson no better definition of which can be given you than by the inhibitory words of our own statute relating to that offense. This statute (Rev. Code 1852, amended in 1893, p. 933 Chap. 128 Sec. 1) provides that, "If any person shall wilfully and maliciously burn or set on fire any dwelling house, whether it be his own or that of another, in which there shall be at the time some human being; * * * such person shall be deemed guilty of arson of the first degree and felony, * * * If any person shall wilfully and maliciously burn or set on fire any dwelling house, whether it be his own or that of another, in which there shall not be at the time some human being, such person shall be deemed guilty of arson in the second degree and felony * * *."
From this definition of the felony of arson, you will observe that the gist of the offense is the danger to the lives of persons who may be dwelling in the house set on fire, and from this recital of the law, you will discern that the crime is graded according to the degree in which it involves danger to human life.
While in this case the prisoner is not indicted for the felony of burning a house in which human beings dwell, he is indicted for attempting to commit that felony, and the offense for which he is indicted bears much the same relation to the major offense of arson, as the felony of assault with intent to commit murder bears to the felony of murder. Therefore, as the elements of the felony of murder are ingredients in the felony of assault with intent to murder, likewise the elements of the felony of arson are ingredients in the misdemeanor of attempted arson.
There must be the wilful act, which in the latter crime is the attempt unaccomplished, as distinguished from the act of accomplishment in the former crime. There must be the intent which directs the act in either crime, and the malice which inspires the acts in both crimes.
With respect to an act constituting an attempt to wilfully and maliciously set on fire a dwelling house, whereby human life is imperiled, the Court charges you, that in order to convict the prisoner of the crime charged, the burden rests upon the State to show to you, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the house attempted to be fired was a dwelling house in which there was at the time some human being,...
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State v. Donovan
... ... Hicks v ... Commonwealth, 86 Va. 223, 9 S.E. 1024, 19 Am ... St. Rep. 891; State v. Taylor, 47 Or. 455, ... 84, 84 P. 82 (1906). [28 Del. 46] 82, 4 L. R. A. (N.S.) 417, ... 8 Ann. Cas. 627; McDermott v. People, 5 ... Parker Cr. R. (N. Y.) 102 ... In ... State v. Lockwood, 24 Del. 28, 1 Boyce 28, ... 31, 74 A. 2, on an indictment for attempt to commit arson, ... the court, in the charge to the jury, held that it was ... necessary to show not only some physical effort on the part ... of the accused to accomplish the act of burning, but also the ... attempt or ... ...