Muscoe v. Commonwealth

Citations

• 86 Va. 443
• 10 S.E. 534
• 1890 Va. LEXIS 2

Syllabus

<p>1. Arrests—Constables—Police officers—Municipal ordinances.—A constable may, uirtvte officii, without warrant, arrest for felony, or upon reasonable suspicion of felony, or for misdemeanors committed in his presence, and take accused before a magistrate. A police officer cannot be authorized by municipal ordinances to do more.</p> <p>2. Idem—Vagrants.—Peace officers may also, without warrant, arrest vagrants and drunken and disorderly persons, and detain them for action by the proper police magistrates.</p> <p>3. Bight to resist arrest—Homicide.—A person is entitled to resist an illegal arrest, and if in doing so he kills the arrester, he is guilty only of manslaughter, unless the circumstances show malice, in which case he is guilty of murder.</p> <p>4. Criminal proceedings—Instructions.—At trial for killing police officer attempting to arrest, without warrant, accused for a misdemeanor committed in officer’s absence, an instruction to the effect that a police officer has a right to arrest a person without warrant, in pursuance of legal ordinances of the city of whose police force lie is a member, empowering him to make such arrest in some specified case; and an instruction that the jury must decide from the evidence whether the attempted arrest is unlawful or not. Held : Erroneous.</p> <p>5. Idem—New trial.—The accused is entitled to a full and correct statement by the court of the law applicable to the evidence in his case, and any misdirection by the court in point of law, on matters material to the issue, is ground for a new trial. Honesty’s case, 81 Va., 283.</p>