Barnhill v. State

Citations

• 56 Fla. 16

Syllabus

<p>1. A fact asserted in a motion for new trial is not self-substantiative before the appellate court, but it must be authenticated otherwise in the 'transcript of record.</p> <p>2. In a trial for murder in the first degree, an instruction upon the law of self defense should 'be so framed as to inform the jury that the defendant could not justify the killing unless he had reason to believe and did believe that it was necessary to save his own life or to save himself from great personal injury.</p> <p>3. An instruction in a trial for murder held properly refused because it failed to hypothesize defendant’s imminent danger.</p> <p>4. On a prosecution for murder, a requested instruction upon the law of self defense was properly refused because it ignored the necessity of the defendant to take the life of the deceased in order to save his own life.</p> <p>5. An instruction is properly refused when the facts postulated therein do not warrant a verdict of not guilty.</p> <p>6. An appellate court has no original jurisdiction to set aside verdicts and grant new trials because of the insufficient evidence to sustain the verdicts. Such court acts only upon a ruling of the trial court refusing a new trial upon that ground, where such ruling is erroneous, and in determining’ this question the evidence upon which the verdict of the jury and the ruling of the court below are predicated will be considered. If there is evidence legally sufficient to support the verdict, and the verdict has been approved by the trial judge, the appellate court will not disturb it, though there be conflicts in the evidence, unless the preponderance of the evidence is such that the jury must have been improperly influenced to render 'the verdict.</p> <p>7. A past quarrel or encounter, if sufficient time for the cooling of passion has transpired, will not reduce the killing from murder to manslaughter.</p> <p>8. When a man has been threatened he is to judge from the circumstances by which he is surroun