Pickens v. State
Mississippi Supreme Court
Appeal from the Circuit Court of Lauderdale County. Hon. S. PI. Terral, Judge. This is au appeal from a conviction of murder, and a capital sentence. State’s evidence at the trial showed that the appellant, who had threatened to kill a man named Tutt, was seen with an open knife asking for him, and approaching a place where hours afterward the man’s dead body was found.
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Appeal from the Circuit Court of Lauderdale County. Hon. S. PI. Terral, Judge. This is au appeal from a conviction of murder, and a capital sentence. State’s evidence at the trial showed that the appellant, who had threatened to kill a man named Tutt, was seen with an open knife asking for him, and approaching a place where hours afterward the man’s dead body was found. A medical witness who examined the body stated that death was caused by a cut which severed the aorta near the heart. The appellant then testified for himself, that he approached to converse amicably with Tutt, when the latter…
1Opinion of the CourtChalmers, J.
The fourth instruction given for the State was erroneous, and was so declared in the case of Cannon v. State, 57 Miss. 147. Such, an instruction is proper, where, as in the case of Riggs v. State, 30 Miss. 635, there is proof of an altercation and blows .with the hand between the parties, and the question is whether the act of killing sprang from the heat of passion thereby engendered, or from the previous grudge. But where, as in this casé and in the case of Cannon v. State, ubi supra, the defense rests upon self-defense, and the act of the accused is either' of that character or is murder,…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Riggs v. StateMississippi Supreme Court · 1872
- Cannon v. StateMississippi Supreme Court · 1879