Boswell v. Commonwealth
Boswell v. Commonwealth
Opinion of the Court
This is a writ of error to a judgment of the Corporation court of the city of Alexandria, whereby the plaintiff in error was convicted of murder in the second degree. The accused having been indicted for the said murder in the said court, on the 12th of July, 1870, on the next day moved the court to remove the cause to the Circuit court of the said city for trial, which motion was sustained, and the cause was ordered to be certified to the said Circuit court. Afterwards, on the same day, and before the signing of the minutes, the said order was rescinded; the accused, by his counsel, excepting to the order of rescisión, as is therein stated; though no hill of exceptions to that effect appears in the record. It does not appear that the accused was personally present when the order of rescisión was made, hut it may he fairly inferred that he was not. On the next day, to wit: the-14th of July, 1870, the accused being personally present, again moved the court to remove the cause to the said Circuit court for trial, which motion was then overruled; and a bill of exceptions to the said ruling of the:
At the next quarterly term, to wit: on the 10th of October, 1870, the accused presented several affidavits of himself and others, tending to show that, by reason of the prejudice against him, he could not get a fair trial in the said city, and moved the court for a change of venue; which motion was overruled. "Whereupon he moved for and obtained a continuance of the cause until the November term, 1870, of the court. The affidavits on which the said motion for a change of venue was founded, are copied in the record, but no further notice need be taken of them, as no exception was taken to the opinion of the court overruling that motion. At November term, the cause was again continued on the motion of the accused. At December term, 1870, the accused, being arraigned on the said indictment, refused to plead thereto, when the plea of not guilty was entered for him by order of the court, according to law, and the trial proceeded.
In the progress of the trial, two instructions were asked for by the accused; but the court refused to give them, and gave several instructions of its own. The accused excepted to the action of the court in refusing and giving instructions as aforesaid, and the facts proved on the trial are set out in the bill of exceptions. The jury found the accused guilty of murder in the second degree, and fixed the term of his imprisonment in the penitentiary at eleven years. The accused then moved for a new trial, and in arrest of judgment; but both motions were overruled by the court. No exception was taken, however, to those rulings of the court, and they need not he 'noticed again. The court having rendered judgment according to the verdict, this
Tbe first error assigned is, that tbe corporation court ■ erred in refusing to allow the case to be removed to tbe Circuit court of tbe city of Alexandria.
Undoubtedly, tbis would bave been error if tbe Code, chap. 208, § 1, as amended by tbe act to revise and amend tbe criminal procedure, passed April 27, 1867, Acts of Assembly 1866-67, p. 931, bad remained unchanged when the motion was made for tbe removal of tbe case as aforesaid. By that section, as so amended, it was declared that “trials for felony shall be in a County or Corporation court, and may be at any term thereof; except that a person to be tried for rape,” &c. (naming certain other specific offences, including murder), “may, upon bis arraignment in tbe County or Corporation court, demand to be tried in tbe Circuit court having jurisdiction of tbe said county or corporation,” &e. But that provision of tbe Code was changed in regard to Corporation courts by tbe act approved April 2, 1870, entitled “an act to prescribe and define tbe jurisdiction of tbe County and Corporation courts of tbe Commonwealth, and tbe times and places of bolding tbe same.” Acts of Assembly 1869— 70, p. 36. Indeed, tbe change may be said to bave been made by tbe Constitution, article 6, sec. 14, which provides that “for each city or town in tbe State, containing a population of five thousand, shall be elected on tbe joint vote of tbe two bouses of tbe general assembly, one city judge, who shall bold a Corporation ■or Hustings court of said city or town as often and as many days in each month as may be prescribed by law, with similar jurisdiction which may be given by law to tbe Circuit courts of tbis State,” &e. Tbe sixth section of the act of April 2, 1870, aforesaid, in conformity with tbe provision of the constitution just referred to, enacts that “ for each town or city of tbe
I therefore think the Corporation court did not err in refusing to allow the case to be removed to the Circuit court.
An objection is taken in the brief of the plaintiff’s counsel, though not assigned as error in the petition, that the order of rescisión aforesaid was not made in the personal presence of the accused. Sperry’s case, 9
The next assignment of error, and that which is mainly relied on, is the refusal of the court to give the instructions asked for by the accused, and the giving of others in their stead.
The facts proved on the trial, and on which the said instructions were founded, are in substance as follows: On the evening of the 4th of July, 1870, Boswell (the accused), being drunk and staggering, came up King street (in Alexandria) to West street, and upset a bai’rel ixx front of a store on King street, as he went by;
After the evidence was heard by the jury, the accused, by counsel, moved the court to give them the following instructions:
1st. If the jury shall believe, from the evidence, that the prisoner was drunk at the time of the killing, in the indictment mentioned, and that such drunkenness was brought on by sensual or social gratification, with no criminal intent, then they are justified in finding a
2d. If the jury believe, from the evidence, that .the-drunkenness aforesaid was the result of long-continue¿l and habitual drinking, without any purpose to commit crime; and that the drunkenness produced insanity, whether temporary or permanent, and that the prisoner was in such condition at the time of the killing aforesaid, then the jury may find a verdict of not guilty;' and further, that where the jury, from the evidence^, should entertain a rational doubt on the question of' insanity, they should find in favor of insanity; or if they should entertain, from the evidence, reasonable doubt of any material portion of the charge, the prisoner” shall have the benefit of that doubt.
And the court refused to give the said instructions,, and gave the following to the jury:
1st. That every man is presumed to be sane, and to possess a sufficient degree of reason -to be responsible for his crimes, until the contrary'is proved to their satisfaction; that if, from the evidence, the jury believe that, at the time of throwing the brick, the blow from which caused the death of the deceased, the prisoner was laboring under such a defect of reason from disease of the mind (remotely produced by previous hab? its of gross intemperance), as not to know the nature and possible consequences of his act, or if he did know, then that he did not know he was doing what was wrong, they will find the prisoner not guilty.
2d. That if the jury shall believe beyond reasonable doubt, from the evidence, that the prisoner threw the brick at the deceased-without provocation and through reckless wickedness of heart, but that, at the time of doing so, his condition, from intoxication or other causes, was such as to. render him incapable of doing a willful, deliberate and premeditated act, then they will find the prisoner guilty of murder in the second degree.
4th. That if the jury believe, from the evidence, that the prisoner, at the time of throwing the brick at the deceased, was in such a condition as to render him incapable of a willful, deliberate and premeditated purpose, and that he did not so throw it out of any reckless wickedness of heart or purpose, then they will find the prisoner guilty of voluntary manslaughter.
5th. If the jury should acquit the prisoner, by reason of their believing him insane, that they will so state in their verdict.
The law in regard to the extent to which intoxication affects responsibility for crime, seems to be now well settled; and the only difficulty is in the application of the law to the facts of a particular case.
In 1 Hale’s P. C. page 32, he says: “ The third sort of madness is that which is dementia affedata; namely, drunkenness. This vice doth, deprive a man of his reason, and puts many men into a perfect, but temporary frenzy; but by the laws of England, such a person shall have no privilege by his voluntarily contracted madness, but shall have the same judgment as if he were in his right senses.” See also 1 Russell on Crimes, p. 7; and 4 Bl. Com. 26. Blackstone says, in regard to the excuse of drunkenness; “The law of England, considering how easy it is to counterfeit this excuse, and how weak an excuse it is, though real, 'will not suffer any man thus to privilege one crime by
. The American cases establish the same doctrine with the English on this subject. In Pirtle v. The State, 9 Humph. R. 663, the court, in explaining the decision in Swan v. The State, 4 Humph. R. 136, say: “This reasoning is alone applicable to cases of murder under our act of 1829, ch. 23, which provides ‘that all 'murder committed by means of poison, lying in wait, or any other kind of wilful, deliberate, malicious and premeditated killing,’ &c. ‘ shall be deemed murder in the first degree, and all other kinds of murder shall be deemed murder in the second degree.’ How, this is drawing a distinction unknown to the common law, solely with a view to the punishment; murder in the first degree being punishable with death, and murder in the second degree by confinement in the penitentiary. In order to inflict the punishment of death, the murder must have been committed wilfully, deliberately, maliciously and premeditatedly. This state of mind is conclusively proven when the death has been inflicted by poison or by lying in wait for that purpose; but if neither of these concomitants attended the killing, then the state of mind necessary to constitute murder in the first degree, by the wilfulness, the deliberation, the maliciousness, the premeditation, if it
With this general view of the law on the subject, I will now take some notice of the instructions in detail; and first, of those asked for by the accused.
The first instruction asked for was properly refused. It states a case of murder, and asks the court to instruct the jury that it was a case of voluntary manslaughter. The words at the conclusion, “provided
The second instruction asked for was also properly-refused. Drunkenness is no excuse for crime, although such drunkenness may be “the result of long-continued and habitual drinking, without any purpose to commit crime,” and may have produced temporary insanity, during the existence of which the criminal act is committed. In other words, a person, whether he be an habitual drinker or not, cannot, voluntarily, make himself so drunk as to become, on that account, irresponsible for his conduct during such drunkenness. He may be perfectly unconscious of what he does, and yet he is responsible. He may be incapable of express malice, but the law implies malice in such a case, from the nature of the instrument used, the absence of provocation, and other circumstances under which the act is done. Public policy and public safety imperatively require that such should be the law. If permanent insanity be produced by habitual drunkenness, then, like any other insanity, it excuses an act 'which would be otherwise criminal. The law looks at proximate, and not remote, causes in this matter. Finding the accused to be permanently insane, it enquires not into the cause of his insanity. In the leading case of the United States v. Drew, before referred to, which was a case of murder, Mr. Justice Story held the accused not responsible, the act having been done under an insane delusion, produced by a disease, brought on by intern
instructions which were given by the court, the first, I think, is unexceptionable. To the greater part, and all but the first two or three lines, no objection has been, or properly can, be taken. To the first part of it, which is in these words: “ That every mail is presumed to be sane, and to possess a sufficient degree of reason to be responsible for his crimes, until the contrary is proved to their • satisfaction,” the accused objects. Of course he does not, and cannot, object to so much even of that part as says “ that every man is presumed to be sane, and to possess a sufficient degree of reason to be responsible for his crimes.” He only objects to the concluding words of the sentence, “ until the contrary is proved to their satisfaction.” Indeed, the objection only goes to the three concluding words, “ to their satisfactionwhich he seems to think is an excessive measure of the proof required by law to repel the presumption of sanity. He seems to think (and that is the thought which is embodied in the latter part of the second instruction asked for) that all the proof required by law, to repel the said presumption, was only so much as would raise a rational doubt of his sanity at the time of committing the act charged against him. How, I think this is not law; and that the law is correctly expounded in the first instruction given by the court. There are, certainly, several American cases which seem to sustain the view of the accused, and are referred to - by his counsel. But I think the decided weight of authority, English and American, is the other way, as' the «cases referred to by the attorney-general will show. In 1 Wharton’s Am. Cr. L. § 711, the writer says: “ At common law, the preponderance of authority is, that if the defence be insanity, it must be substantially
As to the second instruction given by the court, it seems to be free from any just ground of objection, except that I think the words “ other causes” ought to have been omitted. If a person be incapable from other causes than intoxication, of doing a willful, deliberate and premeditated act, he would seem to be incapable of murder in the second degree, or any other crime. To be sure, the words “ through reckless wickedness of heart,” in the former part of the instruction, imply malice; but it is difficult to see how a person guilty of doing an act through reckless wickedness of heart, could, at the same time, be in such condition from other causes than intoxication, as to render him incapable of doing a willful, deliberate and premeditated act. There is, therefore, an apparent conflict between the different parts of the instruction, and, at all ■events, it was calculated to mislead the jury.
The third instruction given by the court is unobjectionable and unobjected to.
Whether the accused threw the brick at the deceased or not, was a fair question of controversy before the jury upon the evidence. He might have thrown it at her, or he might have thrown it at the ducks in the street, or he might have thrown it at random. In either case, he did an unlawful act, likely to do mischief, considering the time and place and circumstances under which it was done, and he was therefore responsible for the consequences of the act as a crime. But the degree of such crime depended upon the intention with which the brick was thrown. Such intention was, therefore, a material fact to be determined by the jury, and the court invaded their province in assuming it.
The fifth instruction given’ by the court is, of course, unobj ectionable.
The result of my opinion is, that there is no other error in the judgment than those in the second and fourth instructions given by the court as aforesaid; but for those errors the said judgment ought to be reversed, the verdict set aside, and the cause remanded for a new trial to be had therein.
The other judges concurred in the opinion of Mon-cure, P.
Judgment reversed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Boswell v. The Commonwealth
- Status
- Published