Gourko v. United States

Citations

• 153 U.S. 183
• 14 S. Ct. 806
• 38 L. Ed. 680
• 1894 U.S. LEXIS 2174

Syllabus

<p>A person who has an angry altercation with another person, such as to lead him to believe that he may require the means of self-defence in case of another encounter, may be justified', in the eye of the law, in arming himself for self-defence; and if on meeting his adversary, on a subsequent occasion, he kills him, but not in necessary self-defence, his crime may be that of manslaughter or murder, as the circumstances, on the occasion of the killing, make it the one or the other.</p> <p>If, looking alone at those circumstances, his crime be that of manslaughter, it is not converted into murder by reason of his having previously armed himself.</p>