Schrader v. State

Citations

• 84 Miss. 593

Syllabus

<p>1. Criminal Law. Murder. Jurors. New trial.</p> <p>If a juror on his voir dire states that he had formed and expressed an opinion as to the guilt of the accused, but that his opinion was not fixed and would not affect his verdict, and the accused does not offer to challenge him either for cause or peremptorily — his peremptory challenges not having been exhausted — ¡be will not after conviction be granted a new trial because the juror had before being empaneled expressed the opinion that the accused ought to be convicted.</p> <p>2. Same. Conflicting evidence.</p> <p>The finding by the trial court on a motion for a new trial that a juror was not hostile to the accused will not be reversed where the testimony on the subject is conflicting.</p> <p>3. Same. Instructions. Already given.</p> <p>It is not error to refuse an instruction the substance of which has already been given in another instruction.</p> <p>4. Same. Previous difficulty. Third parties. Evidence.</p> <p>Evidence is admissible in a murder case of a difficulty, prior to the killing, between decedent and a third party, although defendant was not present when it occurred, if it tend to prove that the defendant, taking the part of the third person, forced deceased to engage in the difficulty in which he was killed by defendant.</p> <p>5. Same. Instruction.</p> <p>Where the defendant shot and killed the deceased he is not entitled to an instruction telling the jury to acquit if they believe from the evidence that defendant insulted and struck deceased and thereupon deceased shot defendant and defendant then killed deceased, failing to negative the idea .that defendant provoked the difficulty with intent to .overcome deceased.</p> <p>6. Same. Improper argument.</p> <p>■ The language of the prosecuting attorney in his closing argument on a trial for murder, to the effect that he would show how people regarded the accused, and that policemen, knowing his past, did not try to stop him after the killing, did not