Cryer v. State
Cryer v. State
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
There is no suggestion in the evidence that Robinson was killed by Ephraim Cryer. Indeed, it is shown by all the testimony that he was not. So much of the first instruction for the state as relates to the responsibility of appellant for the act of Ephraim could only confuse the jury, and should not have been given. It had no relevancy to the issue.
The second instruction for the state is fatally erroneous. By law “ an officer or private person may arrest any person, without warrant, for an indictable offense committed, or a breach of the peace threatened or attempted in his presence, or when a person has committed a felony, though not in his presence; or when a felony has been committed, and he has reasonable ground to suspect and believe the person proposed to be arrested to have committed it; or on a charge made upon reasonable cause of the commission of a felony by the party proposed to be arrested. And, in all cases of arrests without warrant, the person making such arrest must inform the accused of the object and cause of the arrest, except when he is in the actual commission of the offense or is arrested on pursuit.” Code 1892, § 1375.
The officer making the arrest on the occasion of the homicide confessedly had no warrant; the evidence leaves it more than doubtful that any felony had been committed by any one, or that appellant “ et al.” had been charged, upon reasonable cause, with the commission of a felony; and, confessedly, the offense for which the arrest was sought to be made was not committed in the presence of the officer.
The second instruction for the state informed the jury “that, if you believe from the evidence in this case, that the defendant shot and killed deceased at a time when deceased and others were trying to arrest defendant et al., and that he, •defendant, shot and killed him in order to prevent said arrest, the defendant is guilty as charged, and the jury should so find.”
This instruction either tells the jury that the arrest sought
Judgment reversed, and a new trial awarded.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Syme Cryer v. State
- Cited By
- 8 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Murder. Conspiracy. Joint responsibility. Instruction. Where one of a sheriff’s posse is killed in an attempt to make an arrest of two persons, on a trial of one of them for murdc-, an instruction as to his responsibility for the acts of the other nol on trial is irrelevant, and should not be given, if it appear from all the evidence (h.it such other did not kill the deceased. 2. Homicide. Preventing unlawful arrest. Grade of offense. One who kills another, nol in malice, but to prevent an unlawful arrest of himself by such other, is not guilty of murder. 3. Same. Instructions. Weight of evidence. Case. Where one of a sheriff’s posse is killed while attempting to arrest accused and another, and, on the trial of accused for murder, it appears that there was no warrant for the arrest, and the evidence leaves it doubtful whether any felony had been committed by any one, or even charged on reasonable grounds, and the supposed felony was not committed in the officer’s presence, an instruction that if accused shot deceased to prevent being arrested he was guilty as charged, is erroneous. If it mean that the arrest was lawful under § 1375, code 1892, it is on the weight of evidence. If it mean that, notwithstanding the arrest was unlawful, the killing was murder, it is error, for such a homicide, if not in malice, is not murder.