Duncan v. State

86 N.E. 641, 171 Ind. 444, 1908 Ind. LEXIS 139
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 17, 1908
DocketNo. 21,265
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 86 N.E. 641 (Duncan v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Duncan v. State, 86 N.E. 641, 171 Ind. 444, 1908 Ind. LEXIS 139 (Ind. 1908).

Opinion

Montgomery, J.

Appellant was convicted of murder in the second degree, and assigns error upon the overruling of his motion for a new. trial. The motion for a new trial was predicated upon the giving of improper instructions, the refusal to give instructions at the request of appellant, and the erroneous admission and exclusion of evidence

1. [447]*4472. [446]*446Instructions four, twenty-six, twenty-nine and thirty, given by the court, are attacked upon the ground that in each of them the burden of establishing his defense beyond a reasonable doubt was erroneously imposed upon appellant. Agreeing upon the legal principle involved, and conceding the truth of this contention, the State insists that the erroneous expression, if any, embodied [447]*447in these instructions, will not constitute available error, since appellant requested, and caused the court to give, other instructions containing the same error, and in which he expressly assumed the burden of establishing his alleged defense, to the exclusion of a reasonable doubt. Instruction thirty-two, given at appellant’s request, and others tendered, required him to prove every element of self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt to justify the killing and authorize his acquittal. This instruction is as clearly open to the criticisms urged as any given by the court of his own motion or at the instance of the State. When it appears that an appellant has incorporated an erroneous principle or declaration of law in an instruction, and requested the same to be given, it is well settled that he will be held to have invited such error, and estopped from complaining that other instructions of the same import were given by the trial court. Elliott, App. Proc., §§626, 627, 630; 12 Cyc., 885; Lawson v. State (1908), ante, 431; Eacock v. State (1907), 169 Ind. 488; Indianapolis Traction, etc., Co. v. Kidd (1906), 167 Ind. 402, 7 L. R. A. (N. S.) 143; Indiana, etc., Traction Co. v. Jacobs (1906), 167 Ind. 85; Consolidated Stone Co. v. Morgan (1903), 160 Ind. 241; Baltimore, etc., R. Co. v. Conoyer (1898), 149 Ind. 524; Louisville, etc., R. Co. v. Miller (1895), 141 Ind. 533.

3. 4. It is next contended that certain instructions given tended to confuse the jury, and to cast suspicion upon the doctrine of self-defense. The instructions set out are not open to the first criticism advanced, nor fairly subject to the charge of disparaging the right of self-defense. The law of self-defense is available only to those who act honestly and in good faith, and cannot be employed as a shield for the protection of one clearly guilty of murder. It is not improper for a trial court, in a ease involving a disputed claim of self-defense, after fully instructing upon that subject, to admonish the jury that if, upon the facts and circumstances shown by the evidence [448]*448in the case on trial, it appears beyond a reasonable donbt that in taking the life of the deceased the defendant was not honestly and in good faith exercising such right of self-de- • fense, he cannot be acquitted upon that ground. The instructions under consideration were within the principle just declared, and fully warranted by the evidence.

5. Complaint is made of the refusal to give appellant’s instructions twenty-one, twenty-eight and thirty-one, as requested. These instructions reiterated appellant’s right, at the time of the encounter, to. be in the public alley in the rear of the premises upon which the deceased was living, and asserted the further proposition that although it be conceded that appellant had theretofore sustained illicit sexual relations with the wife of the deceased, and at the time in question was in the alley seeking an opportunity for having such intercourse, such fact would afford no legal excuse or justification for an attack .upon him by the deceased. The jury was fully advised by numerous instructions that while in the lawful use and enjoyment of the public alley appellant was in a place where he had a right to be; but the idea sought to be impressed by the second proposition embraced in the requested instruction is radically and grossly wrong. The deceased was not on trial for an assault upon appellant, and it was but incidentally material whether he was legally justifiable in making such assault, if any was in fact made. Appellant claiming an assault and a killing of his adversary in self-defense, the important question was whether he was free from fault tending to provoke the fatal encounter. In this connection one of the instructions refused declared that, being in a public alley, appellant should be held without fault unless shown to be at the time committing’ some act in violation of the law of the land. The highways are provided for the use of the public as a general means of travel, and may not be rightfully employed for lascivious and immoral pur[449]*449poses. If appellant, armed with a deadly weapon, was lurking about the alley for the sole purpose of debauching the wife of the deceased, and thus menacing the personal safety and the sanctity of the home of deceased, when attacked, he was not in a place where he had a right to be and without fault. It would be a reproach upon the law and our civilization to acquit a villain of fault in provoking an attack upon himself by his intended victim while lurking about his premises in the darkness for the avowed purpose of kidnapping, or committing larceny, burglary or arson. It would be alike absurd to hold a libertine confessedly guilty of defiling the wife of another without fault when assaulted by the outraged husband while upon or about his premises under cover of darkness seeking an opportunity to repeat the offense. The doctrine advanced in the refused instructions is antagonistic to moral precepts, and fundamental principles of law, both human and divine. 21 Cye., 809.

6. Appellant’s next insistence is that instructions should embody some proposition of law within the issues, and be definite and clear. Certain intructions given are alleged to be so general as to be misleading and erroneous. The sixth, charged with this fault, reads as follows: “The deceased had the right under the law to protect,' by reasonable means, the honor and sanctity of his home from the defendant and all other persons who might seek to bring it into disgrace by having illicit sexual intercourse with the wife of the deceased.” This instruction was peculiarly applicable to the evidence, and was made proper and necessary by appellant’s claim that he was without fault in the encounter. It embraces a correct and wholesome principle of law, worthy of wide publicity. The jury coul'd not have been misled in this connection, and appellant’s criticisms of these instructions are without substantial merit.

[450]*4507. [449]*449The sixteenth instruction is condemned by counsel becapse it does not include and specifically enumerate every fact and [450]*450circumstance which the jury might consider in determining appellant’s claim that the killing was justifiable.

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Bluebook (online)
86 N.E. 641, 171 Ind. 444, 1908 Ind. LEXIS 139, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/duncan-v-state-ind-1908.