94 Miss. 373
Decided October 15, 1908
Mississippi Supreme Court · decided 1908-10-15
Prom the circuit court of Madison county. Hon. Wiley H. Potter, Judge. Stovall, the appellant, was indicted and tried for the murder of one Mary Jane Richards, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to the penitentiary for one and one half years, and appealed to the supreme court. Appellant and the woman whom he killed met each other in the road a short distance from her home. Their past relationship had been friendly, in fact intimate.
Decided 1908-10-15
¶1delivered the opinion of - the court.-
¶2On the facts in this case this killing was most manifestly murder or nothing. If the killing was -accidental, the defendant was guilty of no offense. If it was not accidental, he was guilty of murder beyond all controversy.
¶3The giving of a manslaughter instruction in such a case was manifestly error, and for this error the judgment is reversed, and the case remanded. Virgil v. State, 63 Miss, at page 320.