Wise v. State

Citations

• 2 Kan. 419

Syllabus

<p>In a criminal action for murder, an exception to a ruling of the Court below rejecting evidence offered by defendant of tho comparative strength of tho deceased and the defendant, becomes unavailable where it is admitted by tho prosecution in open Court that the deceased was a much stronger man than tho defendant.</p> <p>Semite, tho facts in detail of what occurred at tho time of the homicide—as the grapplo, scuffle, &c., wore better evidence of comparative strength, than tho opinion of a witness.</p> <p>Tho character and habits of tho deceased—as that he was well known by defendant and others to be quarrelsome and savage—arc inadmissible as ovidonoe, unless at least tho circumstances of the case raise a doubt as to whether tho defendant acted in self-defense, and tho record must show that tlio defendant was justified in believing himself in danger, held that the circumstances detailed, covering the ras gestae, are sufficient to show tho character of deceased so far as it was proper to show it; and from these circumstances must the provocation, under which defendant acted, bo judged, in this ease.</p> <p>Wlicro tho record shows that the parties were eight or nine paces apart at tho time of the fatal shooting—defendant with a loaded double-barrel shot-gun, and deceased with a knife, and that deceased had stopped before defendant shot him, there is hardly sufficient shown to have justified de-. fendant in considering liimsolf in danger.</p> <p>Where the Court refused to charge “that tho defendant is.entitled to the benefit of every reasonable doubt upon every material fact involved in the case,” but charged that “the defendant is entitled to the benefit of every reasonable doubt of his guilt, remaining in the minds of tho jury, after canvassing the whole of the testimony in the case,” held that the charge given was the law applicable to the case, and that an exception to the refusal of the Court to charge as asked, was not well taken.</p> <p>An indictment commencin