Hastings v. State
Hastings v. State
Opinion of the Court
1. There is no complaint of any error of the court during the trial of this case. We are simply appealed to to determine whether the judge has abused his discretion in refusing to set aside the verdict as contrary to the evidence. We have so often expounded the rule upon which this court decides cases of this character, and so often given the reasons for it, that we will not again go over the subject. The question of the guilt of a party before a jury is, does the evidence show beyond a reasonable doubt that he is guilty ? Before a judge, on a motion for a new trial, the question is, have the jury found him 'guilty with such slight evidence of guilt as to indicate passion, prejudice, mistake, carelessness or the like on their part? Before this court the question comes - in still another simpe; here it is: Has the judge, in refusing the new trial, so plainly erred in his judgment upon the verdict as to make his decision an error of law? Pías he so plainly mistaken the evidence as to show that in his judgment refusing to treat the verdict as the result of passion, prejudice, mistake or the like, he has shown that want of a wise discretion and sound judgment which a judge ought in such cases to exhibit? We do not, in this case, feel that the judge has thus erred. We do not think that, under the facts of this case,
2. Nor do we think the newly discovered testimony is-of the character or importance to authorize a new trial. At least, it only tends to show that the witness thought badly of the prisoner, and thought him guilty of this killing. If she did, her desire to see him hung for it was very natural; for if he be the slayer, the killing was a very wicked and outrageous one — a murder of the blackest kind, by a large man of a small one, and that, too, by surprise, as the deceased was found with his hand in his pocket. We doubt if the evidence of what Emily said had been before the jury it would have affected their verdict; and the well settled rule is, that to justify a new trial for newly discovered evidence, that evidence must be of such a character as would probably change the result.
Judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.