State v. Allen

Citations

• 111 La. 154
• 35 So. 495
• 1903 La. LEXIS 512

Syllabus

<p>CRIMINAL LAW — TRIAL — RULINGS ON EVIDENCE—HOMICIDE—THREATS —INSTRUCTIONS.</p> <p>1. Defendant was arraigned and his case fixed for trial on the same day that the indictment against him was returned. The arraignment was made subject to the right reserved to defendant to urge thereafter any objection which greater delay would have afforded him. He did not avail himself of this right, and announced on the day assigned for trial that he was ready. Under the circumstances, he had no ground for complaint.</p> <p>2. A complaint that a witness was permitted to be asked a question is not ground for reversal unless there should be resulting injury shown.</p> <p>3. A witness placed upon the stand to prove that, in a conversation between defendant and the deceased, the former had made a certain threat against the latter, is authorized to testify to the fact of the threat, when he testifies that he heard all the defendant said on the occasion, and all that the deceased said, except one word which he did not catch.</p> <p>4. Where there is nothing in defendant’s bill of exception indicating that there was reason for the application of the maxim, “Palsus in uno,” the court was not called upon to give any instruction to the jury on the subject.</p> <p>5. There was no error in the refusal of the district judge to charge the jury that “if a man, though in no danger of serious harm, through fear, alarm, or cowardice, kill another under the impression that great bodily harm was about to be inflicted upon him, it is neither murder nor manslaughter, but self-defense, although it might appear afterwards that he was mistaken in the impression.” The doctrine asserted is not law. There must be a reasonable cause for apprehension and belief.</p> <p>(Syllabus by the Court.)</p>