Klyce v. State
Klyce v. State
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
In this particular case we would not reverse because of the giving of the first instruction for the state. In many cases, however, a court might be compelled to reverse because of such a charge. We cannot see what that clause of the statutory definition of manslaughter in reference to killing in £ £ a cruel and unusual manner ’ ’ has to do with the case at°bar. Shooting a man with a pistol while the man, who was much the more powerful, was, according to the testimony of the defense, choking the slayer to death, can hardly be called ££ a cruel and un
Reversed and remanded.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Bowen Klyce v. State of Mississippi
- Cited By
- 9 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Homicide. “ Cruel cund unusual manner.” Code 1893, § 1158. ■ Where the slayer shot the deceased with a pistol while the latter, the more powerful man of the two, was choking the former to death, the killing was not in a “cruel and unusual manner,” within the meaning of code 1893, $ 1158, defining manslaughter. 3. Same. Reasonable doubt. Definition. The words “reasonable doubt,” as used in the criminal law, define themselves. They refer to such a doubt in the minds of the jury and not in the mind of the prosecutor or court, and the jurors should not, by an instruction, be placed under compulsion to give or be able to state the reason which may raise a reasonable doubt in their minds. 3. ¡Same. Having a deadly weapon. A defendant, charged with a homicide, should not be convicted because he had a pistol on his person and carried it to the place of the conflict unless he had it with intent to make occasion for its use and to use it.