State v. Grooms

186 N.W.2d 889, 85 S.D. 532, 1971 S.D. LEXIS 99
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedMay 11, 1971
DocketFile 10825
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 186 N.W.2d 889 (State v. Grooms) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Grooms, 186 N.W.2d 889, 85 S.D. 532, 1971 S.D. LEXIS 99 (S.D. 1971).

Opinion

BIEGELMEIER, Judge.

Defendant entered a plea of not guilty to an information charging him with manslaughter in the first degree. A jury found him guilty of manslaughter in the second degree. The evidence of the state was defendant and Artie Janis engaged in a fight or scuffle in a bar in which Janis was the apparent victor. Defendant and his nephew left the bar together. As they went out the owner of the bar told the nephew to go home and forget it to which he answered they were going to settle it “here and now.” Shortly thereafter defendant reentered the bar with a pistol in his hand; he fired two shots at Janis who was sitting in a booth with three other persons. Janis died on the way to the hospital. Defendant was knocked down and while on the floor the gun was kicked out of his hand and he was kicked and beaten rather severely by friends of deceased. Defendant was taken to a hospital. When defendant was on the floor his nephew came back in the bar with a shotgun in his hands; some persons tried to take this gun away from him and the shotgun fired breaking some glasses. Defendant testified he rode to the bar in his nephew’s car which had three rifles in the back seat and the pistol on the front seat; that Janis said something to him and he stood up and that was the last he remembered until he was in the hospital. On cross-examination he admitted he had formerly testified he jumped up and took a swing at Janis.

*534 Defendant raises two claims of error — the giving of part of Instruction 7 as to criminal responsibility and that SDCL 22-16-20, defining the crime of manslaughter in the second degree, is so vague and indefinite as to render it unconstitutional.

I.

Instruction 7, further explained in other instructions, was concerned with the subject of persons not capable of committing crimes, i. e., without being conscious thereof. See SDCL 22-3-1(6). Defendant’s objection was to a paragraph of this instruction which advised the jury the law presumed a defendant was conscious of his acts and the effect of the presumption when other evidence is produced on the subject.

We do not set out the instruction for the reason there was no evidence defendant was not conscious of his acts when he was committing them and so the instruction, rather than being erroneous as to him, was to his benefit. It gave the jury an option 1 to return a verdict of not guilty if it had a reasonable doubt that he was conscious of committing the crime for which he was charged (or any included offense) when there was no evidence to support it. In State v. Johnson, 81 S.D. 600, 608, 139 N.W.2d 232, 237, speaking generally on this subject, the court wrote:

“Courts are not required to instruct as to matters that find no support in the evidence.’’

The court in. the Johnson opinion also had this specific criminal responsibility question before it and what was there written is not only relevant but decisive here:

“Defendant requested an instruction to the effect that when one who commits an act is not conscious thereof, such act is not criminal even though if committed by a person who was conscious, it would be a crime. This was properly refused. The requested instruction set forth the limited situations *535 in which the claimed rule applies and this record does not show the existence of any of these.”

With reference to there being no evidence to support the instruction, we believe it appropriate to detail the rec'ord on that point. Defendant’s brief does not claim, nor refer to any such evidence; it only states:

“the trial judge was apparently satisfied that some evidence of the lack of criminal responsibility had been produced, since the Court undertook to instruct the jury on the defense of the lack of criminal responsibility.”

The state’s brief points out that there is nothing in the record to show defendant had no consciousness of committing the act. However, because the claim was argued, we have read and searched through the entire transcript and find no such evidence. Defendant merely testified that when deceased spoke to him, “I stood up * * * that is the last I remember.” He was represented at trial by two able and experienced counsel appointed by the court. As part of the defense, the doctor who treated defendant at the hospital was called as a witness. Evidently to explain to the jury defendant’s amnesia or loss of memory, the doctor was asked if there was a medical explanation for defendant’s “inability to remember anything” or “recall the facts that occurred at * * * or preceding * * * the time that he received such injuries”. In discussing an objection made to this testimony one of his counsel stated: “Your Honor, the point of the question is the inability of the defendant to remember. It doesn’t reach the point of unconsciousness”. Unconsciousness, amnesia and insanity are not the same. See references thereto in State v. Johnson, supra; State v. Brech, 84 S.D. 177, 169 N.W.2d 242, and see Weihofen, “Mental Disorder as a Criminal Defense”, especially pp. 35, 46 and 121.

It may be the trial court gave the instructions mentioned out of an abundance of caution. In any event, it was not error of which defendant can complain.

*536 II.

Statutes covering homicide are now codified in SDCL 22-16-1 through SDCL 22-16-39. Those applicable here are: 2

“Homicide is the killing of one human being by another. It is either:
(1) Murder;
(2) Manslaughter;
(3) Excusable 'homicide; or,
Justifiable homicide.” SDCL 22-16-1.
“Homicide is manslaughter in the first degree when perpetrated without a design to effect death and in a heat of passion * * * by means of a dangerous weapon; unless it is committed under such circumstances as constitute excusable or justifiable homicide.” SDCL 22-16-16.

The court, among others, gave instructions embodying the above statutes and then gave Instruction 12, which included pertinent parts of SDCL 22-16-20, as follows:

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Related

State v. Black
494 N.W.2d 377 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1993)
State v. Jenner
451 N.W.2d 710 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1990)
State v. Weatherford
416 N.W.2d 47 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1987)
State v. Woods
374 N.W.2d 92 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1985)
State v. Waff
373 N.W.2d 18 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1985)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
186 N.W.2d 889, 85 S.D. 532, 1971 S.D. LEXIS 99, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-grooms-sd-1971.