Rowell v. State

The state’s tenth instruction, while inaccurately worded, viewed in connection with the other instructions, could not have misled the jury.

The state’s eleventh instruction, which defines malice as “the doing of a wrong act intentionally, without just cause or excuse,” is erroneous in that malice is a state of mind and not an act; but it was perfectly harmless, for “the doing of a wrong act intentionally, without just cause or excuse,” evidences malice.

Some of the other instructions complained of are inaccurate when considered alone, but the errors therein disappear when they are considered…