Cartwright v. State

Citations

• 14 Tex. Ct. App. 486

Syllabus

<p>1. Homicide, Excusable or Justifiable—Right of Self-Defense.—Because the slayer by his own wrongful acts produced a necessity to take the life of the deceased in order to preserve his own, it does not always foEow that the homicide cannot be justified or excused. Consideration must be addressed to the nature and quality of the wrongful acts by which it is claimed the right of self-defense is forfeited or abridged.</p> <p>3. Same.—Adjudicated cases hold that among the slayer’s acts which abrogate or abridge his right of self-defense are the following: 1. Devices by language or otherwise to provoke the deceased to make an assault which wül furnish a pretext for taking his life or inflicting serious bodily injury upon him. 2. Provocation of the deceased into a quarrel, causing the fatal affray; but mere words or libelous publications do not amount to such provocation. 3. Preconcert with the deceased to fight him with deadly weapons. 4. Commencing an attack, assault, or battery upon the deceased. 5. Going with a deadly weapon to where the deceased is, for the purpose of provoking a difficulty or bringing on an affray, and by words or acts making some demonstration of such purpose calculated to provoke the deceased.</p> <p>3. Same.—The right of self-defense is not impaired by mere preparation for the perpetration of a wrongful aet, unheralded and unaccompanied by any demonstration, verbal or otherwise, indicative of the wrongful purpose. .</p> <p>4. Same.—Case Stated—Charge of the Court.— At the trial of C. and E. for murder, the inculpatory proof showed that C. undertook to execute a writ for the seizure of a gun in the possession of the deceased, and procured the assistance of N., neither of them being an officer. Deceased having left the immediate vicinity, they pursued him and overtook a wagon in which he was seated with the gun in his hands. C., with a pistol in hand, called for the wagon to stop, and shots were immediately exchanged between the defendants and th