Guffee v. State

8 Tex. Ct. App. 187
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 1, 1880
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 8 Tex. Ct. App. 187 (Guffee v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Guffee v. State, 8 Tex. Ct. App. 187 (Tex. Ct. App. 1880).

Opinion

Clark, J.

In the determination of the novel and somewhat intricate questions involved in this case, as they arise upon the record, we are aided but little by the adjudged cases, or the writings of learned jurists who have made the-department of criminal law their special study. So far as we have been able to ascertain by an investigation necessarily hurried- and unsatisfactory, no case occupying the-precise attitude of this has as yet come up for decision and the general principles of criminal law, as found in the-books, fail to supply us with rules for guidance, well-defined and established, and directly applicable to the issues arising upon the facts in proof. In determining the law of the case, therefore, we must deduce our conclusions from the-light of reason, unaided except it may be by certain established principles which may serve to fix the law of the case as applicable to certain portions of the transaction.

Upon the various issues legitimately arising from the evidence, it was competent for the jury to have found their verdict for murder in either degree, or for manslaughter, or justifiable homicide in self-defence ; and it was therefore incumbent upon the court to submit instructions applicable to-either of these deductions, and embodying with substantial accuracy the peculiar principles of law which should govern them in determining intelligently the particular offence of which the defendant was actually guilty under the law and beyond a reasonable doubt. Without attempting to set out with literal verbal accuracy these several issues, the law governing them may be briefly stated as follows : —

[199]*199If the defendant and John Guffee, anterior to the original difficulty between John Guffee and the deceased, conspired, together and agreed with each other to slay the deceased upon a favorable opportunity, and in pursuance of such common purpose and design, and after acts done indicating a preparation therefor and flight thereafter, John Guffee, by the procurement or consent of the defendant, brought on the original difficulty between himself and the deceased, for the purpose of affording a pretext for the one or the other to execute the common purpose, and by prearrangement the defendant came upon the scene, and, seizing upon the first favorable opportunity, executed his preconceived design and slew the deceased, then, if the jury believed this state of facts to exist beyond a reasonable doubt, their verdict was correct, and the defendant was properly convicted of murder in the first degree. Or if, after the termination of the first difficulty between John Guffee and the deceased, the defendant, being informed thereof and in a state of mind sufficiently calm, and self-possessed to consider of and contemplate the nature of the act about to be done, agreed with John Guffee to slay the deceased, or with mind sedate and deliberate formed the design to slay the deceased without any agreement with John Guffee, and in pursuance of such formed design and purpose proceeded to the scene of the difficulty, and upon a favorable opportunity carried his design and purpose into execution, in the absence of any fresh provocation upon the part of the deceased, then he was certainly guilty as found, if such facts existed beyond a reasonable doubt. And further, if the defendant, with a sedate and deliberate mind, came upon the scene of the difficulty with the formed design to take the life of the deceased, which design and condition of the mind continued throughout the transaction, and for the purpose of affording a pretext for his wrongful and malicious action he encouraged by words or gestures the attack of the deceased upon his brother, or the attack upon the deceased by. his brother, designing and intending to incite the deceased to [200]*200slay or seriously harm, his brother or to attempt .the so doing, and then to kill him in such attempt or actual perpetration, and he did so kill the deceased under the circumstances mentioned, then he would likewise be guilty of murder in the first degree as found by the jury.

Or if the difficulty was originally brought on by John Guffee with express malice, and the defendant, on being apprised of the pendency of the difficulty, went to the scene with no purpose or intention to stay its progress or to protect his brother from harm, and upon his arrival there, and after his brother came up and renewed the difficulty, he knowingly joined with him in its further progress, and aided him by acts, or encouraged him by words or gestures, to pursue the further prosecution of his unlawful purpose, and the deceased was slain in the progress of the difficulty, then the defendant would be equally culpable with his brother, had the latter lived, and should be punished for murder in the first degree. If, however, John Guffee was not actuated by express malice, but in a transport of passion, engendered from whatever cause, sought the difficulty with the deceased, and in its progress conceived the purpose to slay him, and the defendant, in a state of like passion at seeing his brother engaged, united with him in purpose and action, without attempting to stay the difficulty, but by word or action encouraged John in its prosecution, and the deceased was slain, then John, had he lived, would have been guilty of murder in the second degree, and the defendant is guilty of no higher offence.

But if it appeared satisfactorily in evidence that there was no preconceived purpose on the part of the defendant to take the life of the deceased, but that, when apprised of the threatened danger to his brother, he yielded to an impulse derived from nature and common to humanity, and rushed to the rescue of his brother, with no purpose or intention to join with him in any unlawful attack upon the deceased, but solely to prevent harm from befalling bis brother, or to prevent the further progress of the difficulty [201]*201between his brother and the deceased, and his words and conduct at the scene of the difficulty were not intended or calculated to foment further strife, but were said and done with a view to discourage the continuance of the quarrel, and, without agency or participation on his part, the brother of the defendant renewed the difficulty with the deceased, which resulted in the death of his brother, and thereupon the defendant, in a spirit of revenge, conceived and executed immediately the purpose to kill the deceased, then, if the slaying of his brother was not an adequate cause to produce such passion, the defendant would not be guilty of murder in the first but in the second degree. Or if, after the defendant reached the scene of the difficulty, and after its renewal between the deceased and the defendant’s brother, the defendant having no part or lot in the wrongful act or purpose of his brother, he conceived the purpose hypothetically or conditionally, and not absolutely, to kill or seriously injure the deceased in case the latter, in the progress of such difficulty, should kill or seriously injure his brother, and such conception did not spring from a sedate and deliberate mind, but was conceived when his mind was enraged or excited by the concomitant circumstances and surroundings, and was incapable of cool reflection, and there was not sufficient cooling-time between the conception and execution of such purpose, on the happening of the contemplated contingency, then the homicide would be murder in the second degree only, and not of a higher grade.

Addressing ourselves to a further inquiry as to the issues in the case, we are led naturally to consider the elements of manslaughter, and the principles governing that offence as applicable to the facts of this case.

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

Related

Rogers v. State
819 So. 2d 643 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 2001)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
8 Tex. Ct. App. 187, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/guffee-v-state-texapp-1880.