State v. Brown
State v. Brown
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
The appellant was tried on an indictment for the murder of one Edinboro Lawyer, in Clarendon county, before his Honor, Judge Wilson, and a jury, and convicted of manslaughter on June 6, 1912. After verdict, a motion for a new trial was made and refused. The appellant appeals, and asks for a reversal on four exceptions, which are as follows :
This exception is overruled. The Judge clearly intended to convey to the jury the idea that the penalty for murder, without a recommendation to mercy, was death, and while he, by a slip of the tongue, said by hanging instead of being electrocuted, that is not a reversible error, but apart from this the defendant was only convicted of manslaughter, and his Honor told the jury correctly what the punishment for manslaughter was.
The second exception alleges error on the part of his Honor in charging the jury in defining what the law was. An examination of his charge, as a whole, wilí show it was free from error in charging the law of murder, manslaughter, self-defense and excusable homicide and this exception is, therefore, overruled.
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After a full investigation of the errors complained of, we overrule all of them.
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- State v. Brown.
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Charge — Murder.—To instruct a jury if you find the defendant guilty and nothing more he would hang, which means that if he is convicted of murder without recommendation, he would suffer death, is not reversible error, although the penalty was then death by electrocution. Besides, defendant was convicted of manslaughter, and this instruction could not have affected the result. 2. New Trial. — Refusal of new trial is not an abuse of discretion in this case. If the conclusion is right, but the Judge assigns wrong reasons for reaching it, this Court will not interfere.