Grissom v. State

Citations

• 62 Miss. 167

Syllabus

<p>Murder. Partial insanity. Test of sufficiency thereof as a defense. Malice. Instruction.</p> <p>In the trial of an indictment for murder it is error for the court to instruct the jury that if the accused killed the deceased with malice and not in self-defense, he is guilty of murder, though he may have been at the time of the killing laboring under a partial insanity which rendered him incapable of understanding the nature and consequences of his act or of knowing that it was wrong. Because (1) the law recognizes no distinction between total and partial insanity, if the effect be to deprive the sufferer of his capacity to know right from wrong, such capacity being the test of responsibility for deeds of violence; and (2) there can be no malice in the commission of an act by one whose mind is incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong.</p>