Ellis v. State

Citations

• 108 Miss. 62
• 66 So. 323

Syllabus

<p>1. Criminal Law. Circumstantial evidence. Instructions. Homicide. Murder. Malice aforethought.</p> <p>On a trial for murder, it was error for the court to give an instruction for the state, that there is no essential difference in the character and quality of circumstantial and positive evidence, and that the jury could convict on either, although another clause of the same instruction stated that the jury could convict on circumstantial evidence if it was such as to' exclude every other reasonable hypothesis than that of defendant’s guilt.</p> <p>2. Homicide. Murder. Malice aforethought.</p> <p>An instruction for the state that the term “malice aforethought” means design or intention to' effect the death of the person killed is erroneous, since 'a homicide may be designed and intended, and at the same time entirely justifiable.</p>