Hawthorne v. State

Citations

• 58 Miss. 778

Syllabus

<p>1.Murder. Under seat. %628, Code of 1871. At common law.</p> <p>The first clause of sect. 2628 of the Code of 1871, which provides that “the killing of a human being without the authority of law shall be murder, when with a deliberate design to effect the death of the person killed, or of any human being,” does not alter the common law so as to limit murder to killing with “express malice,” but murder is still, under that clause, the unlawful killing of a human being with malice, express or implied; and malice is implied from any intentional killing which the law does not make justifiable or excusable.</p> <p>2. Same. “Malice aforethought.” “Deliberate design.” Meanings thereof.</p> <p>The words “malice aforethought,” a3 used at common law, mean the same as the words “premeditated design,” used in defining murder in the act of February 15, 1839 (Hutch. Code, 954), and as the words” deliberate design,” employed in the Codes of 1857 and 1871 in defining murder. The act of 1839 defining murder having been three times reenacted since it was interpreted in McDaniel v. The State, 8 Smed. & M. 401, that interpretation must be held to have been approved and adopted with the act.</p> <p>3. Same. “ Deliberate design.” Bow formed. When presumed.</p> <p>A “ deliberate design ” to effect death, as meant in our statute defining murder, may be formed suddenly; and the use of a deadly weapon to kill is presumptive evidence of such design.</p> <p>4. Same. Presumptions. Innocence. Use of deadly weapon. Evidence. Effect.</p> <p>Where one is accused of murder, the law presumes him to be innocent until the contrary is made to appear; but if it be shown that he killed the deceased with a deadly weapon, the general presumption of innocence yields to the specific proof, and the law infers that the killing, if unexplained, was malicious, and therefore murder; but if the attendant circumstances be shown in evidence, by the State or the accused, the character of the killing is to be determ