North Carolina Reports (Volume 90); Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of North Carolina (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1884. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... Statu V. Mazon. At the close of the charge and at the instance of the prisoner's counsel and his suggestion that the jury had not been directed in case they had a reasonable doubt of the guilt of the accused, the court added that if the jury had a reasonable doubt as to the fact of the homicide, the prisoner was entitled to the benetit of it. The two first instructions asked are but an effort to induce the court to reconsider and reverse its repeated rulings in the assertion and enforcement of the doctrine declared in the care referred to, State v. Willis, 63 X. C, 26, and the preceding cases of State v. Ellick, 2 Winst., 56, and State v. Haywood, Phil., 376, and which has since been affirmed in State v. Smith, 77 N. C, 488; State v. Brittain, 89 N. C, 481, and State v. Carland, at this term, ante, 668. If anything can be settled and put at rest by judicial decisions, this principle has been, and we cannot now permit it to be drawn in question without impairing the confidence which ought to be repose) 1 in the integrity and stability of the judicial administration of the law. The third instruction requested was given in substantially similar terms. The response to the fourth instruction, conforming more to the aspect of the evidence favorable to the prisoner, differs from that requested by inserting the additional words, "he, the prisoner, not being willing to engage in the fight and not provoking it," and concluding that " the jury, not the prisoner," must judge of the necessity of the means employed in repelling the assanlt. The modification gives to the prisoner all the protection the law affords him in mitigation of his act by reason of the heat of blood. But it was proper to qualify the general proposition, by excluding the idea of the prisoner's v...