Herman v. State
Mississippi Supreme Court
From the circuit court of Harrison county. Hon. Thaddeus A. Wood, Judge. The appellant was indicted for the murder of one Minnie Swan.
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From the circuit court of Harrison county. Hon. Thaddeus A. Wood, Judge. The appellant was indicted for the murder of one Minnie Swan. Upon the trial the court gave the state an instruction, number 3, which was in these words: “ Every homicide is presumed, in law, to be malicious, and therefore murder; and when the killing has been proven to the satisfaction of the jury, and beyond every reasonable doubt, the law will presume the malice requisite'to murder, and the burden of proof is then shifted to the defendant to show some circumstance of alleviation, justification, or excuse, unless these…
1Opinion of the CourtWoods, C. J.
On the trial below, evidence of an assault with an open knife by the prisoner upon the deceased, about one year before the homicide for which he stands convicted, was admitted over the prisoner’s objection, and this action of the trial court is assigned for error.
The general rule is that on the trial of one charged with a particular crime, the evidence must be confined to the issue joined as to that specific offense, and that usually evidence showing, or tending to show, the accused’s guilt of another offense, at some prior time, is incompetent. This rule is founded in reason, for to allow…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Knight v. StateMississippi Supreme Court · 1896
3Cited by20 opinions
- Stringer v. StateMississippi Supreme Court · 1986
- Lockett v. StateMississippi Supreme Court · 1987
- Lester v. StateMississippi Supreme Court · 1997
- Floyd v. StateMississippi Supreme Court · 1933
- May v. StateMississippi Supreme Court · 1967
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