Green v. State

Citations

• 55 Miss. 454

Syllabus

<p>1. Okimihal Law. Murder., Penalty, how fixed.</p> <p>Section 2 of an act approved March 4, 1875, provides “that in all cases where any person, upon conviction of crime, shall or may be punished with death, the jury may, in their discretion, in their verdict declare that the penalty or punishment shall be imprisonment in the penitentiary for life; but if the jury shall omit to so declare the penalty in their verdict, then the court shall pronounce the death penalty.” The only effect of this statute is to authorize the juries in cases of murder to fix, as the penalty of guilt, imprisonment for life in the penitentiary. And where the jury agree as to a verdict of guilty of murder, but not as to the penalty of imprisonment in the penitentiary for life, they should return a general verdict of guilty, and the court should affix the penalty of death by hanging, as prescribed by law.</p> <p>2. Same. Evidence. Credibility of accomplice. Instruction thereon.</p> <p>In a case of homicide, where the evidence may warrant the belief that an important witness for the state was an accomplice in the crime charged, it is error in the court to refuse to instruct the jury, on behalf of the defendant, that “the testimony of an accomplice in crime should be received with great caution, and the jury may disbelieve such testimony altogether.” It is the right of the accused, in such a case, to have the jury informed of the distrust with which the law regards the testimony of an accomplice, and it is no reason for refusing an instruction upon this point that the jury have already been instructed that they are the sole judges of the evidence, and may wholly disregard the testimony of such witnesses, in general, as they do not believe.</p>