Presley v. State

Citations

• 30 Tex. 160

Syllabus

<p>The defendant was indicted under articles 670 and 674 of the Penal Code, which reads as follows: “If any person shall unreasonably abuse or cruelly treat a slave, whether his own property or the property of another, he shall be fined not less than $100 nor more than $2,000.” “If, by reason of abuse or cruel treatment to a slave, death shall result, the offense is murder.” (O. & W. Dig., p. 542.) The indictment read as in the statement of the case: Held, that this was an indictment for murder, and that in accordance with the decision in The State v. Wilson, 29 Tex., 240, a verdict of guilty and of cruel treatment merely was an acquittal of the charge of murder; and that the finding was not warranted by the indictment, and the judgment was reversed, and the case dismissed.</p> <p>Article 631 of the Code of Criminal Procedure declares, that murder includes all the lesser degrees of culpable homicide. (Paschal’s Dig., Art. 3096.) And if, by an illegal act, the life of a slave be taken, the slayer cannot be punished by a pecuniary fine merely.</p>