Mitchell v. State

Citations

• 43 Fla. 188

Syllabus

<p>1. Assignments of error not argued in this ease are considered, under the settled rule of this court, abarfdoned.</p> <p>2. Neither brother nor sister is included among the domestic relations enumerated in the second division, section 2378, Revised Statutes as originally revised, in defence of whom life may be taken not merely when an actual necessity to kill to prevent a felony exists, but when there shall be reasonable ground to apprehend a design to commit a felony, or to do some great personal injury; and there shall be imminent danger of such design being accomplished. Any person may take the life of another to prevent him from committing a known forcible felony on another, and a brother is not excluded from the right to slay to prevent such a felony upon his sister, but this right under the statute referred to rests upon the necessity to kill to prevent the felony.</p> <p>3. Proof of good character in a criminal prosecution does not as matter of law raise a reasonable doubt of guilt, but such testimony is to be considered by the jury like other evidence offered in the case.</p> <p>4. Where the witnesses offered by the State and the accused respectively are about equal in number, and apparent credibility, and those for the State are in direct conflict with those for the defence, the question of conflict is exclusively for the jury to settle.</p>