People v. Johnson
New York Supreme Court
The prisoner was tried on an indictment for the murder of Daniel Kane, at the Westchester Oyer and Terminer, in November, 1850, Justice McCoun, presiding.
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The prisoner was tried on an indictment for the murder of Daniel Kane, at the Westchester Oyer and Terminer, in November, 1850, Justice McCoun, presiding. The evidence showed that the prisoner and Kane on the fourth day of July, 1850, while both were intoxicated, were seen alone engaged in a fight or scuffle in the public highway; that the prisoner knocked Kane down and took, from the stone wall near by, a large stone, which he threw upon Kane’s head ivith so much violence as to break in his skull and produce death. The presiding judge, among other things, charged the jury that if they…
1Opinion of the Court
By the Court,
Barculo, J., —
We think the learned justice who presided at the Oyer and Terminer erred in charging the jury that if they believed “ that Kane came to his death by a blow from the stone thrown against him, the case was capable of being regarded as a case of murder under the 2d subdivision of the section of the statute defining murder.” He was probably led into the mistake by the remarks of the *295chancellor in the case of The People v. Enoch, 13 Wend. 159, and of Justice Bronson in The v. People Rector, 19 Wend. 606. It would be with extreme reluctance that we could be constrained to…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- People v. RectorNew York Supreme Court · 1838
- People v. EnochCourt for the Trial of Impeachments and Correction of Errors · 1834
3Cited by2 opinions
- People v. LewisAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York · 1953
- McCann v. PeopleNew York Supreme Court · 1866