State v. Pepe

Citations

• 24 Del. 232
• 1 Boyce 232
• 76 A. 367
• 1910 Del. LEXIS 25

Syllabus

<p>Assault with Intent to Commit Murder—Weight of Evidence— Province of Jury—Assault Defined—Intent to Murder— How Shown—Use of Deadly Weapon—Presumption— Murder—Definition—-Malice—Self-Defense—Burden of Proof—Justification—Duty to Retreat— Presumption of Innocence.</p> <p>1. Jurors are the sole judges of the testimony, its value, weight and probative force.</p> <p>2. An assault is defined to be an attempt, with force and violence, to do injury to the person of another.</p> <p>3. The intent to commit murder is an essential ingredient of the crime of assault with intent to commit murder, and it must be proved to the satisfaction of the jury.</p> <p>4. The intent to commit murder may be shown by direct evidence, as by the express confession or declaration of the accused, or by his acts and conduct and other circumstances from which the jury may naturally and reasonably infer the intent.</p> <p>5. Every man must be presumed to intend the natural and probable consequences of his own voluntary and wilful act.</p> <p>6. From the use of a deadly weapon against another, the jury may infer the intent to commit murder, unless the circumstances satisfy the jury to the contrary; such intent being provable by and inferable from the voluntary, unlawful use of a loaded revolver, or other deadly weapon, in a manner, or under circumstances perilous to human life, or directly tending to great bodily harm.</p> <p>7. In order to find the accused guilty of assault with intent to commit murder, it is necessary to show that he committed the alleged assault, and that had the person assaulted died from the effects of the injury received, the accused would have been guilty of the crime of murder, whether the crime of assault with intent to commit murder, if it had been completed by the death of the victim, had been murder of the first or second degree is immaterial, as either would meet the requirements of the statute.</p> <p>8. Murder is the unlawful killing of a human creature in being, wi