United States v. King

34 F. 302, 1888 U.S. App. LEXIS 2288
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Eastern New York
DecidedFebruary 24, 1888
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 34 F. 302 (United States v. King) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Eastern New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. King, 34 F. 302, 1888 U.S. App. LEXIS 2288 (circtedny 1888).

Opinion

Lacombe, J.,

(charging jury.') Gentlemen of the jury, it is the duty of the court, as you know, to instruct or charge you as to the law of the case. In doing so courts frequently refer to the facts, — review them, and present them to the jury with their instructions as to the law. Such a course is not necessary, I think, in this case, because the facts are very few, and you certainly have them all within your recollection. I. shall not weary you, therefore, with any general review of them; and inasmuch as it would be certainly unwise, if not improper, for the court to undertake to present to you any of the material facts without presenting them ail, I shall merely instruct you as to the law applicable to cases such as this, with sufficient fullness, I hope, to enable you to handle the facts satisfactorily and conveniently when you reach your room. It is not unusual, in trials of this kind, to call the attention of the jury to the importance of the particular case they may have in charge. It is hardly necessary to do that here. You are intelligent men. You must fully understand how absolutely essentia] it is to the preservation of the social system in a civilized state that the Hws should be enforced; (¡specially so in the case of acts of violence. The laws must be obeyed; offenders must be punished; and that juryman would be faithless to his trust who, in a case where the facts convicted, should bring in a verdict contrary to the facts. On the other hand, your responsibility in this case will be impressed upon you more forcibly by your experience than if would by any words of mine. For upward of a week you have sat within 25 feet of the prisoner at the bar, conscious of the fact that for him the issues of life and death are in your hands. If that solemn fact lias not impressed you with a sense of the responsibility you owe to your consciences, and your oaths that the verdict you may render shall be honest, intelligent, and careful, nothing that I might say would do so, “though I spoke with the tongue of men and angels.”

The prisoner at the bar, Francis II. King, is indicted for murder, and you are to answer the question as to his guilt or innocence. The fact of slaying being undisputed here, there are only three possible answers [306]*306which you can give to that question: You may find him guilty of murder as charged in the indictment, and in that case your verdict would be, “(ruilty.” You may find him not guilty of murder as charged in the ir dictment, but guilty of manslaughter; in that case your verdict would be, “Not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter.” You may find that he was not guilty of either offense, but that the homicide was excusable, and in that case your verdict would be, “Not guilty.” You see, therefore, that at the outset of your deliberations there are certain technical words placed before you which must be defined, and before I go further I shall read to you the definitions of these words:

Murder. The Revised Statutes of the United States1 prescribe a penalty for any person who commits murder within any fort or other place or district of country under the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States. But the statutes do not define the offense of m urder. Therefore we must turn to the com¡mon law, as it was in England before the Revolution, and has been interpreted since by our courts, for a definition of that crime. It is this: Murder is where a person of sound memory and discretion unlawfully and feloniously kills any human being in the peace of the sovereign, with malice prepense or aforethought, express or implied.
Manslaughter. Manslaughter is defined in the United States Revised Statutes, which in section 5341, prescribe that every person who, within any of the places or upon any of the waters described in the section that I first read, to-wit, any fort, arsenal, etc., — every person who there unlawfully and willfully, but without malice, strikes, stabs, wounds, or shoots at, or otherwise injures another, of which striking, stabbing, wounding, shooting, or other injury such other person dies, is guilty of the crime of manslaughter. That is the definition of “manslaughter.”

You will observe that the distinction between the two, is that in the one malice is present, and in the other it is absent. It is therefore necessary to define that word.

Malice. Malice is defined as “an intent to do injury to another, ” or, “a design formed of doing mischief to another.”

The other, word or term which calls for definition at the outset is “excusable homicide.” Homicide, of course, as you know, is the killing of one human being by another human being. Excusable homicide, so far as anything in this case requires its definition, is the killing of another in self-defense.

Now, perhaps, by this time you appreciate the fact that these definitions are hardly as satisfactory as they might be; nor is that surprising. A cane, a table, a chair, — any object that we look at in this room, — we can by the use of a few words define in a manner satisfactory to ourselves. When, however, we come to deal with crime, we deal largely with mental processes, and with the actions of the human heart; and eminent jurists, laboring for centuries, have been unable to prepare a definition of these crimes which, without further explanation, will enable a jury of 12 men to take it, and apply it to the facts of airy case. Therefore, as we proceed with these instructions I shall again recur to [307]*307these definitions, and give them such elaboration as may he necessary to enable you to see exactly what the offenses aro. I shall probably best assist you if I trace over and point out to you the course which you may most conveniently pursue in your deliberations when considering the issues raised in this case.

The first thing to be determined is the death, — that Ryan Willis was "killed,— and the way in which he was killed. Of course you are relieved of any trouble in that particular by the facts in the case, and the concessions and the statements of the prisoner himself. There is no dispute but that Ryan Willis came to his death by a ball discharged from a Springfield rifle held at the time in the hands of Francis II. King. The place where he was thus slain becomes material, because, as you will remember, the penalty was prescribed against one who commits murder within any fort, arsenal, place, or district of country under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Uuited States. A deed has been put in evidence here to the United States, covering a certain plot of land. An act of the legislature of the state of New York has been read, covering also a plot of land. There is testimony that the military authorities of the United States have for years past exercised acts of ownership and of jurisdiction over a certain plot of land in the village of Fort Hamilton, lying adjacent to, and inside of — if I may use the expression — a certain fence on the line of Hamilton avenue. Now, certain maps, sworn to by those who made them, have been put in evidence; and without burdening you particularly with going over the details, I may charge you that if you believe the testimony of the surveyor and of the officers who made those maps, and further believe that the.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
34 F. 302, 1888 U.S. App. LEXIS 2288, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-king-circtedny-1888.