Lawson v. State

Decided January 15, 1857

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1857-01-15

<p>[INDICTMENT FOB AN ASSAULT AND BATTERY.]</p> <p>1. Assault defined-. — To constitute an assault, there must he the commencement of an act, which, if not prevented, would produce a battery: tbe drawing of a pistol, without presenting or cocking it, is not an assault.</p>

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““To constitute an assault there must be the commencement of an act, which, if not prevented, would produce a bat tery. — State v. Blackwell, 9 Ala. 79 ; State v. Davis, 23 N.C. 125 [35 Am.Dec. 735]; Bishop on Criminal Law, 409; 2 Archbold’s Criminal Law, (Waterman’s Notes.) 282-83; Roscoe’s Criminal Evidence, 287. The drawing of a pistol, without presenting or cocking it, is not the commencement of such an act. The court erred, therefore, in the charge given.””

quoted by 1 later decision, including Odom v. State

Relies on State v. Blackwell

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1857-01-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 16 later decisions — most recently November 1990

16 state decisions

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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WALKER, J.

¶1To constitute an assault, there must be the commencement of an act, which, if not prevented, would produce a battery. — State v. Blackwell, 9 Ala. 79; State v. Davis, 1 Iredell’s Law R. 125; Bishop on Criminal Law, 409; 2 Archbold’s Criminal Law, (Waterman’s Notes,) 282-83; Roscoe’s Criminal Evidence, 287. The drawing of a pistol, without presenting or cocking it, is not the commencement of such an act. The court erred, therefore, in the charge given.

¶2The judgment of the court below is reversed, and the •cause remanded.

Rice, C. J., not sitting.