Hite v. Commonwealth
Supreme Court of Virginia
Error to a judgment of the County Court of Mecklenburg county rendered May 21, 1898, sentencing the plaintiff in error to be hanged. The facts sufficiently appear in the opinion of the court. The instructions offered by the prisoner and refused are as follows: “Murder is the deliberate and premeditated killing of a rational creature in being.
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Error to a judgment of the County Court of Mecklenburg county rendered May 21, 1898, sentencing the plaintiff in error to be hanged. The facts sufficiently appear in the opinion of the court. The instructions offered by the prisoner and refused are as follows: “Murder is the deliberate and premeditated killing of a rational creature in being. Premeditation and deliberation are necessary ingredients of the crime, and though the jury may believe from the evidence that the prisoner did kill William Bowers on the 26th of April, 1898, in the county of Mecklenburg, yet if upon review of all the…
1Opinion of the CourtBuchanan, J.
A motion for a continuance is addressed to the sound discretion of the court, under all the circumstances of the case; and, whilst an appellate court will supervise the action of the trial court on such motion, it will not reverse unless such action was plainly erroneous.
This is the rule as laid down in Hewitt’s Case, 17 Gratt. 627, and it has been uniformly adhered to by this court. Russell’s Case, 28 Gratt. 930; Mister’s Case, 79 Va. 9; and 4 Minor’s Inst. (4th Ed.) 1077 and cases cited.
The record does not show that the action of the court in refusing to continue the case was plainly…
2Cases cited3 opinions
- Hewitt v. CommonwealthSupreme Court of Virginia · 1867
- Roussell v. CommonwealthSupreme Court of Virginia · 1877
- Commonwealth v. MisterSupreme Court of Virginia · 1884
3Cited by29 opinions
- Sims v. CommonwealthSupreme Court of Virginia · 1922
- Allen v. CommonwealthSupreme Court of Virginia · 1918
- Johnson v. CommonwealthSupreme Court of Virginia · 1923
- Thompson v. CommonwealthSupreme Court of Virginia · 1952
- Enoch v. CommonwealthSupreme Court of Virginia · 1925
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