Gresham v. State

The ruling announced in headnote 1 does not require any elaboration.

The defendant contends that it was error in that “part of the charge dealing with manslaughter, to charge the doctrine of reasonable fears, as reasonable fears has no part in a charge on voluntary manslaughter.” The defendant was indicted for murder. The judge charged the jury, separately and independently of each other, the law of murder, the law of voluntary manslaughter, and the law of justification. In charging the jury on the law of manslaughter, the judge gave to them the principle that if the deceased actually made an…