State v. Ackles

Citations

• 8 Wash. 462
• 36 P. 597
• 1894 Wash. LEXIS 92

Syllabus

<p>ASSAULT WITH INTENT TO MURDER — INFORMATION —EVIDENCE — INSTRUCTIONS — VERDICT.</p> <p>In an information charging a crime, useless allegations cannot destroy the legal effect of necessary averments.</p> <p>An information charging that the accused “ did unlawfully, purposely and of his premeditated malice, and with intent to murder, assault and shoot one Benjamin Eranklin with a deadly weapon,” etc., sufficiently charges an assault with intent to commit murder in the second degree, as, under Code Proc., § 1243, allowing other words conveying the same meaning as the statutory words to be used, the place of the statutory word, “maliciously,” is supplied by the words, “of his premeditated malice.”</p> <p>Upon the trial under such an information, it is not error for the court to refuse to charge the jury that before they could And defendant guilty, they must find that the shooting was done purposely and of his premeditated malice, as premeditation is not an element of the crime charged.</p> <p>Under an information charging the accused with an assault with an intent to commit murder, a verdict finding him “guilty of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to do bodily harm,” is erroneous, as such verdict convicts him of an offense other than, the one alleged in the information.</p> <p>Error arising upon a ruling of the court in regard to the right of argument canot be urged on appeal after waiver at the trial.</p> <p>In a prosecution for assault with intent to commit murder, evidence of quarrels and disputes between the defendant and the person assaulted, prior to the assault, is competent as tending to show ill will and motive.</p>