Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

92 Miss. 828

Sullivan v. State

Mississippi Supreme Court

Decided March 15, 1908

Mississippi Supreme Court · decided 1908-03-15

From the circuit court of Lincoln county. Hon. Moyse H. Wilkinson, Judge. Sullivan, appellant, was indicted, tried and convicted for the murder of one Pickering, sentenced to the penitentiary for life and appealed to the supreme court. The deceased was killed while in a buggy with his brother, driving along the highway at night. He was shot from ambush, and instantaneously killed.

Cited by 1 later decisions — most recently November 1944

1 state decisions

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1908-03-15

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Oalhoon, J.,

¶1delivered tbe opinion of tbe court.

¶2Tbe court gave only one intruction for the state, to-wit:

¶3“Tbe court instructs tbe .jury for tbe state tbat, if they believe from tbe evidence in tbis case beyond a reasonable doubt tbat tbe defendant willfully, deliberately, and with malice aforethought shot and billed Hardy Pickering, be is guilty as charged ■in tbe indictment.”

¶4It is objected tbat tbis is defective because it leaves out tbe words, “unlawfully and feloniously.” We think there is nothing in. tbis objection, tbe shooting being from ambush. All instructions must be based on tbe facts, and in tbis case tbe •only question was whether tbe defendant shot Pickering from ambush on tbe roadside. If be did so, and tbe jury believed be did, be is manifestly guilty of murder,- and if, under tbe facts, tbe court bad charged merely tbat if Sullivan shot Pickering, tbe instruction would perhaps have been valid for tbe reason tbat, if be shot and did tbe killing, it was plainly murder and nothing else. But, if we could be mistaken in our ruling on tbe point made, tbe defendant below himself cured any error of tbat sort by asking, and tbe trial court gave them, twenty in■structions elaborately prepared by very skillful counsel, in tbe very first one of which tbe court charged tbat tbe jury could not convict unless satisfied beyond all reasonable doubt “tbat tbe •defendant willfully, unlawfully, feloniously, and of bis malice aforethought-killed and murdered tbe deceased.”

¶5Tbe other points made, wie think, on tbe record as presented, require no notice.

¶6'Affirmed.

/92/miss/828 · .json · Public domain