Bell v. State

The counsel for the defendant in the court below asked the judge to instruct the jury as follows: “If the jury believe that the declarations of Bell, made at the time of the alleged assault, explained his intention, and that he did not intend to commit any assault unless Mills drew a weapon, they will find for the defendant.”

The court refused to give this instruction to the jury. The instruction is not couched in the happiest terms that might be employed to convey the idea contained in it, hut we are of opinion that it presented a legal proposition pertinent to the case before the jury, and…