People v. Battle

Defendant Battle has been convicted of assault, second degree, in a quarrel which started as a fist fight among three men, but in the course of which one Cage was stabbed. The Judge refused to leave open to the jury the alternative of finding defendant guilty of assault in the third degree. The proof is susceptible, however, of a reasonable doubt about defendant’s having stabbed Cage or knowingly having participated in this part of the assault, while at the same time leaving no reasonable doubt about the lesser assault.

On the duty of the court to charge the lesser degree of assault, defendant…