Commonwealth v. Evans
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Indictment for manslaughter, charging the defendant with assaulting Henry McKenzie with a knife and giving him a wound whereof he died.
Read the full summary
Indictment for manslaughter, charging the defendant with assaulting Henry McKenzie with a knife and giving him a wound whereof he died. After trial in the superior court, before Fose, J., and a verdict of guilty, the presiding judge, at the request of the defendant, reported the case for the determination of this court, substantially as follows: The Commonwealth introduced evidence tending to show that on August 8,1867, the defendant made an assault upon McKenzie with a knife, inflicting a dangerous wound upon him, from the effect of which he died in the following October. The defendant…
1Opinion of the CourtWells, J.
The former conviction for assault and battery is not pleaded as a bar to this indictment. As the death occurred after that conviction, the offence now prosecuted was not then complete; and was not capable of judicial determination. The two offences are not identical in law. Commonwealth v. Roby 12 Pick. 496. Commonwealth v. Cutler, 9 Allen, 486.
The identity, in fact, of the assault which caused the death with that which was the subject of the former conviction, is *27conceded. The record was therefore competent to prove the fact of such conviction. Commonwealth v. M’Pike, 3 Cush. 181. The only…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Commonwealth v. AustinMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1867
3Cited by44 opinions
- Emich Motors Corp. v. General Motors Corp.Supreme Court of the United States · 1951
- Hoag v. New JerseySupreme Court of the United States · 1958
- United States v. Leonard A. PelulloCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit · 1994
- State v. IngenitoSupreme Court of New Jersey · 1981
- Commonwealth v. DiStasioMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1937
39 more not listed; retrieve them via the Exa API.