State v. Sowders

Citations

• 109 Wash. 10
• 186 P. 260
• 1919 Wash. LEXIS 1022

Syllabus

<p>Homicide (131)—Appeal—Harmless Error—Instructions. Upon a conviction of manslaughter, a misdirection in defining murder in the first degree is harmless error.</p> <p>Criminal Law (302, 311)—Trial—Instructions—Repetition. It is not error to fail to repeat instructions as to the justification for manslaughter where, in view of the instructions as a whole, the jury could not have been misled.</p> <p>Homicide (131)—Appeal—Harmless Error—Instructions. Failure to mention accident or misfortune in instructions as to justification for murder in the second degree is not fatal to a conviction of manslaughter.</p> <p>Criminal Law (311)—Trial—Instructions as a Whole. An instruction on the subject of manslaughter using the words “not being excusable or justifiable,” held not to mean to the jury that accused acted without justification, in view of all the instructions given.</p> <p>Homicide *(33)—Indictment and Information (103)—Degrees of Homicide. An information charging murder in the first degree includes and warrants conviction of the lesser degree of manslaughter.</p> <p>Homicide (114)—Instructions—Accident or Misfortune. An instruction that a homicide is excusable when committed by accident or misfortune in doing a lawful act without unlawful intent and that an accident is an event without occurrence of the will or expectation, is clear and sufficient on the subject.</p> <p>Criminal Law (451)—Appeal—Harmless Error*—Arguments of Counsel. Error cannot be predicated on unduly restricting argument of counsel to which assent was given.</p> <p>Same (451). Error cannot be predicated on argument of counsel for the prosecution which was fair and in answer to defendant’s counsel.</p> <p>Infants (16)—Juvenile Offenders—Punishment—Statutes. A boy under sixteen years of age may be committed to the state penitentiary, notwithstanding Rem. Code, § 1982-12, providing that such a child shall not be confined in any building with adult convicts.</p>