Adams v. People

Citations

• 47 Ill. 376

Syllabus

<p>1. Criminal Law—jury judges of the law and fact. Under our statute, juries in criminal cages are judges of the law, as well as of the fact, and they have the right to pronounce upon the law, as it may seem in their opinion to be.</p> <p>2. Same—self-defense. While the doctrine is, that a man, threatened with danger, must determine from appearances, and the actual state of things surrounding him, as to the necessity of resorting to self defense, and if he acts from reasonable and honest convictions, he will not be held responsible, criminally, for a mistake as to the extent of the actual danger, where other judicious men would have been alike mistaken ; at the same time, he has not the right to provoke a quarrel and take advantage of it, and then justify the killing of the party with whom he has provoked the quarrel.</p> <p>3. Same—of threats by deceased. Where a party on trial upon the charge of murder, defends upon the ground that he acted in self-defense, evidence that the deceased had a bowie knife inside of his coat only a short time before the killing, and that he declared he would cut the accused’s heart out with it, would have no weight with the jury, it not being shown the prisoner knew the facjt, or acted upon the suspicion of its existence, and it appearing the deceased had no evil designs toward the accused, but rather that the latter sought the difficulty in which the killing occurred.</p> <p>4. Same—of exculpation of the accused by the deceased. And in such a case, the dying declaration of the deceased, that he did not wish the accused hurt for what he had done, and that accused had done nearly right, affords no evidence of anything more than a Christian spirit of forgiveness toward one who had done him great wrong, and a new trial would not be granted for the purpose of enabling the accused to prove such declaration, upon the ground that it was newly discovered evidence.</p> <p>5. New trial—newly discovered evidence. A new trial will not be granted