Tidwell v. State

• Decision Date: 18 April 1904
• Citation: 36 So. 393,84 Miss. 475
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: ALEXANDER TIDWELL v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI

36 So. 393

84 Miss. 475

ALEXANDER TIDWELL v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI

Supreme Court of Mississippi

April 18, 1904

FROM the circuit court of Holmes county. HON. WILLIAM F. STEVENS Judge.

Tidwell the appellant, was indicted, tried, and convicted of murder and appealed to the supreme court.

The evidence showed that Tidwell went with an officer and some other men to a house to arrest a man one night. Graves came up toward the house, and was mistaken by Tidwell for the man they were looking for, and Tidwell shot Graves, slightly wounding him. Graves became angry, and said: "I will get even with you if I live." A few days after this occurrence, Graves and Tidwell went into a neighboring town and went home on the same wagon. After they had gotten out of town, Tidwell insisted that Graves accept his apology and explanation of the shooting, but Graves declined to make friends with him. Tidwell had a shotgun with him, he says, to protect himself, as Graves had threatened to kill him. Tidwell further testified that Graves threw down a paper sack he had in his hand, and put his right hand behind him, as if to get a pistol from his pocket, and he immediately shot him from the rear. Graves died immediately from the effects of this shooting. Some testimony was taken in the effort to show the temporary insanity of Tidwell at the time of the shooting. The court refused the following instructions asked by the defendant:

"No 1. The court instructs the jury that if they believe from the evidence that Tidwell received a blow upon his head some years ago, which affected his mind to some extent, and that, when under excitement or anger, this affection of the mind caused him to lose mental control of himself, and, along with his mental control, the power to distinguish between right and wrong, and that, at the time of the killing, defendant was laboring under great mental excitement, and entertained no malice against Graves, and merely wished to protect himself, and that the affection of his mind caused by such injury produced a mental delusion magnifying the extent of danger to which he was then exposed, and that while laboring under such delusion, and without malice, he shot and killed Graves, or, if the jury have a doubt as to the truth of these facts, then they should find the defendant not guilty.

"No. 2. The court instructs the jury that if they believe from the evidence in this case that Tidwell's mind was measurably impaired by a blow on his head, and that, while ordinarily sane, his mind would become so disordered under excitement as to cause him to lose the power of distinguishing between right and wrong, and that he was laboring under such disorder at the time of firing the fatal shot, and magnified, through a delusion, the danger to which he was exposed, and without malice, and with a perfectly sincere belief that he was in immediate danger of death at the hands of Graves, fired the fatal shot, then the jury will acquit Tidwell."

Affirmed.

Noel, Pepper & Elmore, for appellant.

There being evidence before the court that appellant had received a blow on the head, five or six years before,...