Nowacryk v. People

Citations

• 139 Ill. 336
• 28 N.E. 961
• 1891 Ill. LEXIS 1219

Syllabus

<p>1. Murder—provocation the day before—will not excuse or reduce to manslaughter. No provocation, however great, offered the day before the commission of the homicide, can be shown in justification or excuse, nor can it have a tendency to reduce the offense from murder to ¡manslaughter, for the reason that there is time sufficient between the provocation and the killing for the voice of reason to be heard, and for deliberation.</p> <p>2. Same—manslaughter distinguished. Before a homicide can be accounted manslaughter, the killing must be the result of that sudden, violent impulse of passion supposed to be irresistible. If it appears that there was an interval between the provocation given and the killing, sufficient for the voice of reason and humanity to be heard, the killing must be attributed to deliberate revenge, and punished as murder.</p> <p>3. Same—degrees in punishment—evidence to determine proper punishment. While the statute recognizes no degrees in the crime of murder, yet by providing such a wide range of púnishment it clearly recognizes the fact that the crime may be committed under circumstances manifesting different degrees of turpitude. The design of the statute is that the punishment shall be proportioned to the turpitude of the offense, and hence evidence having a direct and legitimate bearing upon that question should be allowed to go to the jury, so as to enable them to fix the punishment understandingly and justly.</p> <p>4. On a trial of one for murder, evidence that the day before the homicide the father of the deceased was in persistent pursuit of the defendant, armed with a deadly weapon, seeking to take his life, and after failing to find the prisoner still threatened to kill him on sight, it appearing that the latter became cognizant of such threat, and in seeking to take the life of the father killed the daughter, is admissible on the question of the degree of punishment to be awarded the de- . fendant.</p>