Pharr v. State

Citations

• 7 Tex. Ct. App. 472

Syllabus

<p>1. Self-Defence — Charge of the Court.—Instructions on the right of self-defence should not limit the justification to the imminency of real danger, ignoring the appearance of imminent danger, in view of which the defendant may have acted.</p> <p>2. Murder in the First Degree. —It is not all homicide, but all murder, committed in the perpetration or attempt at the perpetration of robbery, rape, arson, or burglary which is made murder in the first degree by our Penal Code. Malice, therefore, the characteristic element of all murder, cannot be dispensed with or ignored in a proper charge to a jury trying an indictment for murder so committed. But implied as well as .express malice constitutes a murder so committed murder in the first degree.</p> <p>3. -Charge of the Court.—No intimation of the opinion of the court upon the truth or falsity of any part of the evidence should be communicated to the jury, either by the charge or in any other manner.</p> <p>4. Allegata et Probata. — The motive upon which a homicide was committed is more properly a subject of proof than of pleading.</p>