Davis v. State

Decided October 15, 1902

Mississippi Supreme Court · decided 1902-10-15

From the circuit court of Copiah county. How. [Robert Powell, Judge. Davis,- the appellant, was convicted in the circuit court of an assault and battery and appealed to the Supreme court. The opinion states the facts. The appellant was a guard on a county convict farm, and was in charge of the convicts. While guarding the .prisoners he had one Pullen whipped with a plow line. There is nothing in the record to show that the punishment was excessive or inhuman.

Cited by 1 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2019

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Decided 1902-10-15

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Tehran, L,

¶1delivered the opinion of the court.

¶2Corrected opinion. Former opinion (32 South., 922) withdrawn. •

¶3The appellant, a guard upon a convict farm, whipped one of the convicts with a plow line, and, being convicted of assault and battery, he appeals.

¶4Upon the trial appellant claimed a right to whip moderately a convict guilty of idle and refractory conduct. Appellant produced evidence tending to prove that the convict whipped by him was refractory in a high degree. Ilis claim, howevey, was rejected by the court. We approve the ruling of the circuit judge. If county convicts can be whipped with flexible or inflexible instruments, or by other methods, it can only be done when the board of supervisors of the county make a rule or law authorizing such subsidiary punishment. A guard may not, of his own authority, inflict the punishment.

¶5Affirmed•