Binyon v. United States

76 S.W. 265, 4 Indian Terr. 642, 1903 Indian Terr. LEXIS 15
CourtCourt Of Appeals Of Indian Territory
DecidedSeptember 23, 1903
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 76 S.W. 265 (Binyon v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court Of Appeals Of Indian Territory primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Binyon v. United States, 76 S.W. 265, 4 Indian Terr. 642, 1903 Indian Terr. LEXIS 15 (Conn. 1903).

Opinion

Clayton, J.

The facts, as developed by the proof, were that the defendant is a negro, and lived within the jurisdiction of the court trying the case, and in which district the killing was also done. He was a married man, and he, his wife, and the deceased were living together. The deceased was a colored child about eight years old, and an orphan, living under the care and protection of the defendant. Late in the afternoon of the day of the killing the defendant’s wife went to a neighbor’s house for some sorghum plants. She remained a short time, and returned to her home, but soon afterward came running back, crying out that the child had fallen into the fire and was burned. The neighbors at once went to the house and found the child lying in the fire, dead. It was horribly burned. Its clothing was entirely destroyed by the fire. When they would lay their hands upon it, as stated by the witnesses, “-the skin would slip off.” ' Wounds were found upon the body, noticeably one upon the head. The next day a doctor was called in. He examined the body, and testified that the wound on the head was about three inches long, cut to the skull, and in the center the skull was broken and crushed in; and that there were marks of considerable violence all over her body and on her face, besides being badly burned; and that the wound on the head was a fatal one. It was this wound, doubtlessly, that caused her death. Two witnesses testified that her private parts were swollen, lacerated and torn. About noon of the day of the killing the defendant had been at this doctorfs house to procure some liniment for bruises, and, among other things, said to the doctor [646]*646that he had given the child a violent whipping. Shortly after the neighbors had collected at the house, the defendant was seen about three-quarters of a mile away. He said he had been at one of the neighbors to get some potato plants. The defendant confessed his crime to a number of persons. To one he said: “Well, he told me that he whipped this child twice the day he killed it, and the last time he whipped it he said he put it in the' bed. It was sick some way or another, and he put it in the bed, and he went to the field. He was hoeing corn, and when he and his wife come back to dinner he claimed they found the child dead in the bed. And then he said to me that he said to his wife that they was into it, and they had to get out of it some way. Then I asked him what way then they thought they could get out of it, and he said then he said that he would burn it, and make it appear that it had.fell in the fire and burned up, and went on and told me that he put it in the fire, and told his wife to hand him some clothes, and he set it afire; and then he was to leave, and send her down to this Willis Howe’s house, four or five hundred yards away, to get some cane plants, he said; and she went down there and got them, and he was to be gone when she come back; and she went and got them, and come back, and then run back and made the alarm as though this child had fell in the fire. And when the alarm was made there was another man about one hundred and fifty yards from the house, and he looks up. He heard the hollering, and he thought it was at the house where.he staj'ed, that was about two hundred yards; and he saw Rufus Binyon then going away from the house. He hadn’t got over two hundred yards from the house when the alarm was made.” To another witness he stated: “He said after she had been whipped, why unmercifully that way, why he saw she was going to die, and they laid her on a bed, and he comes up to Doctor Bernard, I suppose — well, it was up there at Ran — to get some liniment to rub over the wound, and he come back to apply the liniment, and it seems she was in a dying [647]*647condition. He just remarks that he see we were into it, that somebody would come and discover those bruises on her body and he just remarks to me that when a man gets into anything' he will try all ways he knows how to get out of it, and he thought maybe by burning it over would conceal the wounds inflicted on her body, and that was the reason why he burned it. He said just before burning it it had life in it, and he didn’t have the. heart to burn a child with life into it; but he didn’t say anything further as to what caused her immediate death. He said something had-to be done, but he didn’t have the heart to burn her Avith life, but he acknowledged to me that he burned her.” And as to the killing he made substantially the same statement to others. There was absolutely no proof in rebuttal of this testimony, except that which AA’as offered on the issue of insanity. The defendant testified in his oivn behalf. He did not deny the killing, but claimed an entire forgetfulness or unconsciousness of the Avhole matter.

On the plea of insanity the defendant offered proof to shoiv that some few years before the date of the killing he had fallen in loA’e Avith his present Avife. The father of the girl forbade the marriage. He became morose, and ivas taken with a spell of sickness, for about two Aveeks of AA'hich time ho Avas delirious, and had to be Avatehed, and at times held in bed. .Dr. J. E. Reed, a witness for the defendant, testified that he Avas called to A'isit the. defendant at that tone and found nothing abnormal; except his circulation was not good; temperature normal, and, in his "opinion, the defendant was shamming. The defendant married just afterward, and has never been known to have any other such spells since. He also offered testimony to the effect that AA’hon he was a'boy, going to school, in Alabama, he was sometimes “curious”; he would not study as Avell and learn as fast at some times as at others. When he Avould miss answering a question, and the teacher Avould scold him, “he would look

[648]*648fiustrated and curious.” He would sometimes catch boys, and hold them, arid afterwards, when spoken-to about it, he would say, “I didn’t mean to hurt you.” He would sometimes strike his head and say there was something crawling in there. He acquired some education and taught school some. As another evidence of insanity, it was proven that he applied for license, which was refused him by the presbytery, because they thought him an improper person to preach. He showed some ill temper because of this, but still he was permitted to preach on some occasions. One witness, as an evidence of his insanity, testified that he would “preach curious.” He would say, “That’s the candy,” or “That’s the stuff.” Another witness thought him “curious” because he “did not preach like other preachers. He '.would preach his own experiences instead of the Bible.” And all of the testimony offered to prove his insanity was of this trifling and unconvincing character. The theory of insanity was largely founded upon the delirious ravings of a sick man, (if, indeed, he were not shamming), occurring years before the killing. There was no evidence to show that’ the taint of insanity was in the blood of the family,, or that the defendant did any act ndicating insanity, except to kill the child and burn her to hide the evidences of his guilt, shortly before, at the time, or after the killing. At noon of the day of the killing, and probably immediately after the fatal blow had been stricken, he was seen by Dr. Bernard, to whom he went to get liniment. The doctor testified that he had known him for three years; that during that time he had practiced in his family, and had never seen any evidence of insanity, and that he seemed to be perfectly sane, as much so as he had ever seen him, on the day of the killing; that he was as intelligent as ordinary colored men. Those who talked to him immediately after the killing pronounced him sane.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Hawkins v. State
1986 OK CR 58 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1986)
Haynes v. State
72 So. 180 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1916)
Sharp v. State
1909 OK CR 124 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1909)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
76 S.W. 265, 4 Indian Terr. 642, 1903 Indian Terr. LEXIS 15, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/binyon-v-united-states-ctappindterr-1903.