State v. Mercer

The evidence, when considered in the light most favorable to the State, was sufficient to require submission to the jury and to support verdicts of guilty of murder in the first degree. There is no substance to the contention that the motion to dismiss as in case of nonsuit should have been allowed. However, assignments of error, based on exceptions to the charge, are well taken.

The court’s instructions include the following: “(W)hen an intentional killing with a deadly weapon is admitted or established, the law then casts upon the defendant the burden of showing to the satisfaction of the…