Milton v. State

Citations

• 40 Fla. 251

Syllabus

<p>1. An indictment for murder, complete in form in alleging the offence and the mortal wound inflicted, and further stating, of which said mortal wound the deceased then and there, in the county named, did languish, and languishing did live until a date mentioned, less than a year from the time when the wound was inflicted, upon which last day the deceased, in the county stated, did die, sufficiently alleges that the death of the deceased was caused by the wound inflicted-</p> <p>2. Previous declarations of an accused, evincing a purpose to kill a deceased, made at a time not too remote from the occurrence, may be shown as bearing on the question of intent to kill and the animus of the accused towards the deceased.</p> <p>3. Under a count in an indictment alleging that the accused made an assault upon a third party with intent to murder him, and then and there shot and killed the deceased, it is competent to show that the third party, at the time and in the same occurrence, was shot, and also the character of the as.sault upon him.</p> <p>4. The State summoned a witness but did not examine her, and she was placed on the stand for the accused- On cross-examination the State Attorney asked if she had been convicted of any crime in this State. This question was objected to on the ground that the State could not impeach her own witness:-' Held, that the State was not precluded from asking the question; and further, that the mere summoning of a witness for the State, without any examination, did not entitle the accused to treat the witness as one examined and vouched for by the State.</p> <p>5. The accused offered to prove the character for lewdness of a witness summoned by the State, but who had not been examined at the time: Held, without intimating that such testimony was proper under any circumstances iff a like case, that the offered testimony was entirely irrelevant and immaterial.</p> <p>6. Every fact from which the jury may legitimately deduce innocence or guilt