State v. Drummond

Citations

• 70 Wash. 260
• 126 P. 541
• 1912 Wash. LEXIS 1040

Syllabus

<p>Homicide — Pbemeditation and Malice — Justification—Evidence —Question fob Juey. In a prosecution for homicide, the questions of malice and premeditation and justification are for the jury, where it appears that defendant and deceased had quarreled the day before over an obstruction in the road, that defendant admitted that he shot the deceased, whose body shortly after the shooting was found in a large pool of blood near his hat in the road, and that some ninety-six steps away was an empty cartridge, and the tracks of three persons lead away therefrom, but no footprints were found near the body, and the defendant and the two other witnesses testified that deceased first attacked them in a threatening manner as though about to draw a pistol, when defendant shot twice, and that after the second shot the deceased turned and walked away out of sight and they did not know that he was mortally wounded.</p> <p>Homicide — Justification — Reduction of Degrees — Burden of Proof. The killing being admitted, the burden of proving justification or reducing the crime to manslaughter is upon the defendant.</p> <p>Homicide — Premeditation and Malice — Evidence—Instructions. It not being necessary that there be direct and positive evidence of premeditation or malice, instructions thereon are properly given if those elements could be inferred from the circumstances proven.</p> <p>Homicide — Evidence—Admissibility. In a homicide case, the shirt worn by the deceased at the time he was shot, in the same condition as when removed from the body, is admissible in evidence.</p> <p>Same — Expert Evidence. In a homicide case, where defendant claimed that deceased attacked him and walked away after being shot, the evidence of a physician describing the wound in detail and stating his opinion as to how far deceased could have walked after receiving it, is admissible.</p> <p>Witnesses — Impeachment — Rebuttal — Credibility. After accused had denied that he and his codefendants had rehearsed