Wood v. State

Citations

• 81 Miss. 408

Syllabus

<p>1. Criminal Law. Murder. Instructions. Statutory definition of crime. Code 1893, ? 1149. Error if inapplicable to case.</p> <p>It is error on the trial of a murder case where it is manifest from the whole evidence that defendant acted with the specific purpose of killing a particular person, to instruct the jury that “the killing of a human being, without authority of law” is murder “when done in the commission of an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved heart, regardless of human life, although without any premeditated design to effect the death of any particular individual; ” the instruction, while abstractly correct and in statutory language (code 1893, \\ 1149), being inapplicable to the ease.</p> <p>3. Same. Self-defense. Instructions narrowing erroneous.</p> <p>In a murder case, the theory of the defense, supported by evidence, being that defendant shot deceased honestly believing that he was one of a group of persons with whom defendant was having an altercation, an instruction for the state is erroneous which narrows the question of self-defense to the occurrences between defendant and deceased, excluding all consideration of what transpired between defendant and such group.</p>