State v. Lukens

6 Ohio N.P. 363
CourtHardin County Court of Common Pleas
DecidedJuly 1, 1898
StatusPublished

This text of 6 Ohio N.P. 363 (State v. Lukens) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Hardin County Court of Common Pleas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Lukens, 6 Ohio N.P. 363 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1898).

Opinion

Charge oe the Court.

Peleger, J.

The defendant, Albert Lukens, stands before you charged with the crime of murder in the first degree. He has plead thereto “Not guilty”. You have been sworn to determine whether or not the charge so made is true. The indictment in the first count alleges that the defendant on the 15th day of March, 1899, in Hamilton county, Ohio, unlawfully, purposely and of deliberate and premeditated malice did kill and murder one Julia Dorothea Stiegler by inflicting upon her certain mortal wounds with a certain instrument, a piece of iron. The second count in the indictment charges that the defendant on the 15th day of March, 1899, in Hamilton county, Ohio, unlawfully and purposely did kill and murder one Julia Dorothea Stiegler, by inflicting upen her certain mortal wounds with a certain piece of iron while in the perpetration of a robbery. We will now consider the first count only.

Lesser Grades: Although the indictment by its terms charges the defendant, in the first count, with murder in the first degree, the law provides that the lesser grades of crime shall be included in the greater. This charge of murder in the first degree in the first count therefore embraces (2) murder in the second degree, (3) manslaughter, (4) assault and battery, (5) assault alone, (6) not guilty. That is to say, if in your judgment the evidence before you under the law here given you does not warrant you in finding the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree, you may, if under the law the testimony does warrant you, find him guilty of murder in the second degree; or if in your judgment the evidence under the law do«s not warrant you in finding him guilty of as high a crime as murder in the second degree, you may, if the law and evidence warrant you, find him guilty of manslaughter; or if the evidence, under the law does not warrant you in finding him guilty of as high a crime as manslaugher you may, if the law and evidence warrant you, find him guilty of assault and battery; or, if the evidence, under the law, does not justify you in finding him guilty of as great an offense as assiult and battery, you may find him guilty of assault alone; or, lastly, if the law and evidence do not warrant you in finding him guilty of either of such grades, you may, if the law and evidence warrant, find him not guilty.

Murder in the First Degree: Whoever purposely and with deliberate and premeditated malice kills another, or whoever purposely in perpetrating robbery kills another, is guiity of murder m the first degree and shall be punished by death in the electrical chair, unless the jury trying the action recommends mercy, in which case the punishment shall be imprisonment in the penitentiary during life, without the right of being recommended for pardon or párele except upon proof of innocence established bej'ond a reasonable doubt.

Before you .can convict the defendant of murder in the first degree as charged in the first count (that is, without perpetrating a robbery), it is necessary that you and each of you should be satisfied beyond a isasonable doubt that he killed Julia Dorotlia Stiegler, (1) unlawfully, (2) purposely, (3) maliciously, and (4) deliberately and premedStatedly.

Burden oe Prooe: The burden cf proof is upon the state to satisfy yon of each and every allegation in the indictment, beyond a reasonable doubt.

Presumption oe Innocence: Upon the trial of all criminal cases the law presumes a party charged with crime to be innocent. A presumption of innocence is to infer or take for granted as a fact, that a man is not guilty. You must take for granted therefore, that this innocence prevails throughout the trial upon every material fact that yon will be called upon [364]*364to consider, until it is overcome by full proof, such as will exclude all reasonable doubt of the guilt of the accused. The return of an indictment creates no presumption of guilt against the defendant.

Reasonable Doubt: Before you can render a verdict of guilty against the defendant you must find from the evidence produced before you that each and every fact charged in the indictment has been established to such a degree of certainty as to exclude frcm your minds every reasonable conclusion except that of guilt; or in other words, your minds must beso satisfied tnat the crime was committed by this defendant as to leave no other rasonable conclusion possible. Indeed, upon any reasonable theory if you can truthfully make all the evidence before you agree with the defendant’s innocence, you should do so.

Now, what is a reasonable doubt? The words, looked at fairly, are perhaps sufficient to explain themselves. To doubt is to be uncertain. A reasonable doubt is one based on reason. It does not, however, mean a doubt arising from a mere fancy or whim, or from motives of charity or mercy, nor does it moan a doubt existing in the mind because of the fear of rendering a disagreeable verdict. It means such an honest doubt as you would be willing to act upon in the more weighty and important matters relating to your own affairs, or such a just and honest doubt after a fair comparison and consideration cf all the evidence sc that you cannot honestly say that you are satisfied of the ' defendant’s guilt. If you cannot so say, then there is a reasonable doubt existing and it would be the duty of the jury to acquit; hut if you can say that you feel a fixed, firm belief or conviction to an honest certainty of the truth of the charge, then there is nc reasonable doubt left and you would be justified in finding the defendant guilty.

Corpus Delicti: Not only in the crime cf murder in the first degree but in all others mentioned to you there are certain necessary elements embodied in the indictment which must be proven by the state by the same standard, viz., beyond a reasonable doubt. These elements are as fellows: (a). Was Julia Dorotba Stiegler a living person and is she now dead? (b). If so, was she killed by someone other than herself. These constitute technically the “corpus delicti”, meaning “the body cf the crime.” (c). Was she killed by the defendant Albert Lukens by inflicting certain mortal wounds upon her head with a piece of iron? (d). Were the acts committed in the county of Hamilton and state of Ohic? (e). And -were the acts committed on or about the 15th day of March, 1899? If from all the evidence you answer ‘’No” to either of thse questions you need go no further with the case. You must then acquit the prisoner. If however, you answer all of them affirmatively, you will then proceed to examine the evidence with a view of ascertaining whether all the other elements necessary to convict cf any of the grades of crime mentioned to ycu have been made out by the state, again by the same standard — -beyond a reasonable doubt. We will define now the essential elements of murder in the first degree as charged in the first count.

Material Elements of First Degree Murder.

“Unlawfully” simply means that which is unlawful and contrary to law. Confessedly the killing of a human being is unlawful and oontary to law.

“Purposely” means an intent to kill. To do an act purposely means to do it intentionally and not accident-ally. This is the sense in which the term is used in this indictment. It indicates an operation of the mind, an act of the will, an intention — a design to do the act. The presence or absence of purpose is a question of fact to be determined hy the jury from all the testimony and circumstances of the case.

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Bluebook (online)
6 Ohio N.P. 363, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-lukens-ohctcomplhardin-1898.