Vaughn v. State
Vaughn v. State
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiff in error, hereinafter referred to as the defendant, upon an information charging him with murder in the second degree, was • convicted of the crime of manslaughter, in the Criminal Court of Record of Escambia County, and seeks relief here by writ of error.
To one J. C. Nichols, the state’s leading witness, on
Other assignments of error are predicated upon the exclusion of questions to witnesses, but, without reciting them here there was no error in such exclusions. Various charges given are also assigned as error. We discover no error in any of the charges given except the fifth. This charge is so framed as to confuse and mislead the jury, and upon another trial it had best be reconstructed by omitting from it all of the latter part thereof, after and including the word “unless.”
The expression: “A doubt which would satisfy a reasonable man,” should be omitted from charge No. 9 on the subject of reasonable doubt. Hampton v. State 50, Fla. 55, 39 South. Rep. 421.
All four of the charges requested by the defendant stated correct propositions of law, and should have been given.
For the error found the judgment of the court below is reversed and a new trial awarded at the cost of Escambia Oounty.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- John B. Vaughn, in Error v. State of Florida, in Error
- Cited By
- 5 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- CRIMINAL LAW — EVIDENCE—ANIMUS OF WITNESB — REASONABLE DOUBT. 1. It is error to refuse to permit the defendant on the cross-examination of a State witness to interrogate such witness as to whether he had made threats of doing violence to the defendant. Great latitude is allowed in the cross-examination of a witness that tends to expose the animus of such witness. 2. It is error to charge the jury that .a reasonable douht is “a doubt which would satisfy a reasonable man.”