Betts v. State

In addition to the general grounds, the plaintiff in error contends, in an amendment to his motion for a new trial, that a new trial should be granted upon the following additional grounds: (1) Because the court erred in charging the jury that “Provocation by words, threats, menaces, or contemptuous gestures shall in no case be sufficient to free the’person killing from the guilt and crime of murder.” It is alleged that this charge was prejudicial to the movant; and that the court should have charged, in connection with the foregoing .quotation, the principle that while words, threats,…