Caingetti v. Chapman

6 So. 2d 380, 149 Fla. 597, 1942 Fla. LEXIS 841
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedFebruary 26, 1942
StatusPublished

This text of 6 So. 2d 380 (Caingetti v. Chapman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Caingetti v. Chapman, 6 So. 2d 380, 149 Fla. 597, 1942 Fla. LEXIS 841 (Fla. 1942).

Opinion

BUFORD, J.:

On petition for writ of habeas corpus we have examined the record in the case of Angie Michael Caingetti v. State of Florida in which our opinion and judgment was rendered on May 20, 1941. See 141 Fla. 147, 2 Sou. (2nd) 368.

In the petition for writ of habeas corpus, petitioner challenges the validity of the verdict rendered against him on the trial which we received in the opinion and judgment, supra. The verdict reads:

“We, the jury, find the defendant guilty as charged. So say we all.”

It is contended that the verdict is insuffiicent because it did not specifically state the degree of unlawful homicide of which petitioner was found guilty, as required by Section 5038 R.G.S., 7140 C.G.L.

Prior to the enactment of the Criminal Procedure Act of 1939, we were bound by the provisions of Section 5038 R.G.S., 7140 C.G.L., but Section 229 and Section 147 of the Criminal Procedure Act superseded the former Act and is in this language:

“Section 229. Determination of Degree of Offense. —If the indictment or information charges an offense which is divided into degrees, without specifying the degree, the jurors may find the defendant guilty of any degree of the offense charged; if the indictment *599 or information charges a particular degree the jurors may find the defendant guilty of the degree charged or of any lessor degree. The court shall in all such cases charge the jury as to the degrees of the offense.”

The record shows that following the rule prescribed in the Criminal Procedure Act, supra, the trial judge instructed the jury as follows:

“The defendant in this case stands charged under an indictment which was presented by the Grand Jurors of the State of Florida, empaneled and sworn to inquire and true presentment make, in and for the body of the County of Volusia, and filed on the 12th day of April, 1940, in this Court. The indictment is as follows:
“ ‘In the Circuit Court for the Seventh Judicial Circuit of the State of Florida in and for Volusia County, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and forty.
“The State of Florida
vs.
“Angie Michael Caingetti, alias A. M. Phillips
Indictment Murder in First Degree
“In the Name and by the Authority of the State of Florida:
“The Grand Jurors of the State of Florida, empaneled and sworn to inquire and true presentment make, in and for the body of the county of Volusia, upon their oaths do present, that Angie Michael Caingetti, alias A. M. Phillips of the County of Volusia and State of Florida, on the 18th day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and forty, in the County and State aforesaid unlawfully, *600 and from a premeditated design to effect the death of Anna K. Henson, did kill the said Anna K. Henson, by striking her with a hammer, contrary to the form of the statute in such case made and provided and against the peace and dignity of the State of Florida.
“Murray Sams
“State Attorney for the Seventh
“Judicial Circuit of Florida
“Prosecuting for said State.’
“And, Gentlemen, as you will see by the instructions following, every homicide is not unlawful, but there are certain classes of homicide that are lawful and are known in the law as ‘justifiable’ and ‘excusable.’ It is; therefore, the duty of the State before the Jury can convict to show by the evidence that the homicide in the particular trial is an unlawful homicide, and this fact must appear from the evidence to the exclusion of and beyond a reasonable doubt. If the jury have a reasonable doubt as to whether the homicide is lawful or not, then the benefit of such doubt must be given to the defendant and he be acquitted.
“The killing of a human being is either justifiable or excusable homicide or murder or manslaughter, according to the facts and circumstances in each case.
“A homicide is justifiable when committed by any person:
“(1) When resisting any attempt to murder such person, or to commit any felony upon him; or
“ (2) When committed in the lawful defense of such person when there shall be a reasonable ground to apprehend a design to commit a felony or to do some great personal injury, and there shall be imminent danger of such design being accomplished; and
*601 “(3) When necessarily committed in attempting by lawful ways and means to apprehend any person for any felony committed, or in lawfully suppressing any riot, or in lawfully keeping and preserving the peace.
“Homicide is excusable when committed by accident or misfortune in doing any lawful act by lawful means with the usual ordinary caution, and without any lawful intent, or by accident and misfortune in the heat of passion, upon any sudden and sufficient provocation, or upon a sudden combat, without any dangerous weapon being used and not done in a cruel or unusual manner. Both justifiable and excusable homicide are lawful.
“The unlawful killing of a human being when perpetrated from a premeditated design to effect the death of the person killed or any human being, is murder in the first degree.
“The unlawful killing of a human being when perpetrated by an act imminently dangerous to another and evincing a depraved mind regardless of human life, although without any premeditated design to effect the death of any particular individual, is murder in the second degree.
“The unlawful kiling of a human being when perpetrated by the act, procurement or culpable negligence of another in cases where such unlawful killing is not murder in one of its degrees, is manslaughter.
“The Court in the trial of this case has permitted the introduction of certain confessions. These should be acted upon by the jury with great caution in behalf of the defendant. You, Gentlemen of the Jury, are to determine the credence which shall be attached to the alleged confessions and every part thereof, and it is your duty to give such confessions a fair and *602 unprejudicial consideration. Each should be taken as a whole. And you should give effect to such parts as you believe to be true and reject from your consideration all that you find sufficient reason to reject.
“Gentlemen of the Jury, if you believe that the State has proved to the exclusion of and beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant Angie Michael Caingetti, alias A. M. Phillips, on the 18th day of January, A. D. 1940, did, in the County of Volusia and State of Florida, unlawfully and from a premeditated design to effect the death of Anna K.

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Related

Caingetti, Alias Phillips v. State
2 So. 2d 368 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1941)
Haddock v. State
192 So. 802 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1939)

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Bluebook (online)
6 So. 2d 380, 149 Fla. 597, 1942 Fla. LEXIS 841, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/caingetti-v-chapman-fla-1942.