State v. Sorenson
Supreme Court of Minnesota
The defendant was tried in the district court for Ramsey county, before Wilkin, J.,upon an indictment for the murder of one William Johnson. The principal defence was that the killing was in self-defence. The trial began on February 19, 1883, and was continued from day to day, the ease being submitted to the jury on the 22nd, and a verdict of guilty of manslaughter in the second degree returned on the 23rd.
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The defendant was tried in the district court for Ramsey county, before Wilkin, J.,upon an indictment for the murder of one William Johnson. The principal defence was that the killing was in self-defence. The trial began on February 19, 1883, and was continued from day to day, the ease being submitted to the jury on the 22nd, and a verdict of guilty of manslaughter in the second degree returned on the 23rd. A motion in arrest of judgment and a motion for a new trial were made and denied, and the defendant sentenced to five years’ imprisonment in the state .prison. The case comes to this court…
1Opinion of the Court
Gilfillan, C. J.1
The request made at the close of the evidence on the part of the state, for an instruction to the jury to return a verdict of not guilty, was properly refused. The evidence then in did not make it appear that the killing was justifiable so clearly that the court could do otherwise than submit it to the jury.
It appeared that, immediately prior to the killing, the deceased, who was to some extent intoxicated, had committed an aggravated assault upon one Benson, inflicting a severe wound on him, which was known to defendant at the time of the killing. The circumstances of this…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Reynolds v. La Crosse & Minnesota Packet Co.Supreme Court of Minnesota · 1865
3Cited by10 opinions
- State v. BoyceSupreme Court of Minnesota · 1969
- Ingelson v. OlsonSupreme Court of Minnesota · 1937
- Reed v. StateCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma · 1909
- State v. GardnerSupreme Court of Minnesota · 1905
- McGuire v. KenefickSupreme Court of Iowa · 1900
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