Haney v. State

Citations

• 129 Miss. 486
• 92 So. 627

Syllabus

<p>. 1. CKian.N'Ar, Law. Error cannot he predicated on irregularity in draioing jury in absence of evidence that accused not fairly tried.</p> <p>Where there is no evidence that accused was not tried by a fair and impartial jury, error cannot be predicated upon irregularity in the drawing or impaneling thereof. Section 2692, Code of 1906, in relation to impaneling juries, is made directory by sec-ton 2718, Code of 1906.</p> <p>2. Homicide. Statement of deceased admissible as dying declaration only if made in extremis, and burden on state to show such fact.</p> <p>Before a dying declaration is admissible, the declarant must have a sincere and settled belief of his impending dissoluton, and have lost all hope of recovery, however slight. The burden of proof to show this is upon the state before the declaration is admissible.</p> <p>3. Cbimirax Law. Statement of deceased that accused shot him for nothing, made immediately after shooting, held not part of the res gestae.</p> <p>A statement of a person shot made a minute or two after the shooting, in the absence of the accused, to the effect that the accused shot him, and 'shot him for nothing, is merely the rehearsal or history of the shooting, a past transaction,, and is not admissible as a part of the res gestae. This statement is in no sense a verbal act explaining any part of the difficulty, and constituting a part of it.</p> <p>4. Criminal Law. Homicide. Admission of statement of deceased, not part of res gestae nor dying declaration, reversible error.</p> <p>In this case the deceased had threatened to take the life of the appellant. There were no eyewitnesses to the shooting, which occurred at night upon a street. The accused shot deceased once with a shotgun. The defense was self-defense, the accused claiming that the deceased, a much larger man, had just thrown a brick at him, and was at the time of the shooting in the act of assaulting him with a wooden picket. Held, that it was reversible error to admit in tes