Henry v. State

Citations

• 81 Fla. 763
• 89 So. 136

Syllabus

<p>1. Where several persons combine together to commit an unlawful act upon another, resulting in the death of the person against whom they entertained the common design, an indictment for murder in the first degree charging one of them with the act which produced death and the others with being unlawfully present from a premeditated design to effect the death of the person assaulted, abetting, assisting, counseling, hiring and procuring the principal to commit the felony, sufficiently charges the latter as principals in the second degree.</p> <p>2. In charging persons as principals in the second degree to murder in the first degree, or charging them with being accessories before the fact present and abetting the commission of the felony, the omission of the words “aid” or “aiding” does not render the indictment bad as to them when other words of the same meaning are used denoting confederacy, co-operation, concurrent effort and assistance.</p> <p>3. To sustain a conviction of one charged with being principal in the second degree to murder in the first degree, it is necessary to prove that the defendant actually entertained a premeditated design to kill the deceased, or knew that the person being aided, entertained such design.</p> <p>4. Where a question is propounded to a witness which question does not indicate the answer which the witness will give, the proper practice is to proffer to establish the fact which is asserted to have been the purpose of the question.</p> <p>5. A certified copy of the verdict and judgment in the case where a principal in the first degree charged with murder was tried is admissible upon the trial of accessories before the fact to such murder, to establish - the conviction of the principal.</p> <p>6. Where one is charged with being accessory before the fact to murder in the first degree, it is not error for the court to charge the jury that the principal had been convicted of murder in, the first degree where the fact is not controverte