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3 Ala. 419

State v. Schuessler

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided January 15, 1842

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1842-01-15

THE prisonor was indicted at the fall term, 1841, of the Circuit Court of Montgomery county, for the murder of one James Glover, and convicted of manslaughter. At the trial, certain evidence was introduced, conducing to prove that the prisoner assaulted and stabbed the deceased, by which he came to his death. Evidence was also introduced in behalf of the prisoner, conducing to prove that he fought in his own defence.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1842-01-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently December 1877

3 state decisions

101842185018601870decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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GOLDTHWAITE, J.

¶1We can find nothing in this case to warrant us in coming to the conclusion that an error was committed when the charge demanded was refused.

¶2The defect of the case is, that it does not disclose the facts in evidence before the jury, and we cannot infer the charge to be erroneous, when it may have been refused because there was no evidence to warrant it.

¶3If it is admitted that the prisoner when assailed, might repel force by force, and that he was not required to retreat or fly before his adversary, this admission does not render him excusable, if he either causelessly or wantonly deprived his adversary of life. The evidence, even when most favorably construed for the prisoner, only shows that he was assaulted by the deceased, but does not show that his life was endangered, or great bodily harm menaced. Neither does it show that the slaying was not wantonly or causelessly done.

¶4A state of facts may have been shown, to which the charge would have been appropriate; or the evidence may have been such as to render the inquiry entirely immaterial, and even absurd.

¶5We cannot presume the fact, and adhering to our well established rule, that error must be affirmatively shown, we feel constrained to affirm the judgment.

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