Butler v. State

Decided October 15, 1903

Mississippi Supreme Court · decided 1903-10-15

Bbom: the circuit court of Union county. How. PeeeiN H. Lowrey, Judge. Butler, appellant, was convicted of an assault and appealed tO'the supreme court. The evidence showed that a number of persons, including appellant, were engaged in digging a grave, and one of them, McCulley, had been jokng appellant a good deal, which angered him, and appellant picked up a shovel and started toward Mc-Oulley and threatened to strike him with it, but was caught and stopped.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1903-10-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently February 1961

4 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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Truly, J.,

¶1delivered the opinion of the court.

¶2The instruction granted for the state informs the jury that “if there was a clear intent on the part of the defendant to commit violence on the person of McCulley,” then the jury should find that the assault had been committed. This instruction furnishes no definite legal rule for the guidance of the jury. It does not state that the jury must believe “from the evidence” that this intent existed, nor that they must so be*439lieve “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Both of these expressions are absolutely necessary under the facts of this case. Goodwin v. State, 73 Miss., 873, 19 South., 712.

¶3Reversed and remanded.