State v. Kilgore

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

The defendant was indicted for assault and battery with intent to kill, and the jury rendered a verdict of guilty, with a recommendation of mercy, whereupon his Honor, the presiding Judge, sentenced him to serve five years, either upon the public works of the county, or in the State penitentiary.

1, 2 The appellant’s exceptions (which will be reported) relate solely to the'charge. In determining whether the assignment of error can be sustained it is necessary to consider the charge in its entirety.

The cases of State v. Jones, 86 S. C. 17, 67 S. E. 160, and State v. Miller, 88 S. C. 485, 70 S. E. 1061, show that the exceptions cannot be sustained.

Appeal dismissed.

dissenting. I dissent. I think that his Honor erred when he said to the jury:

.“And it is so often a mistaken idea as to this necessity that people go to work and shoot and kill others and come into Court and set up self-defense and seek to get juries to let them off, when really the facts do not make" out any case of necessity.”

In the case of the State v. Price, 103 S. C. 280, 88 S. E. 295, this Court said:

*265 “We desire tosay in this connection that in the trial of a case of this sort it is unsafe, if not a dangerous thing, to-tell a jury what another jury in another county, in another case, has done.”

It seems to me that, if it is dangerous to refer to another case, it is still more dangerous to refer to what often happens. Besides, this statement, in my judgment, discredits self-defense.