Source: http://academy.lawofselfdefense.com/law_case/harris-v-state-104-so-2d-739-fl-ct-app-1958/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 11:36:31+00:00

Document:
Clarence Jackson HARRIS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
Aug. 15, 1958; Rehearing Denied Sept. 2, 1958.
D. C. Laird, Lakeland, and John W. Stanford, Fort Lauderdale, for appellant.
Richard W. Ervin, Atty. Gen., and George R. Georgieff, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, for appellee.
BIRD, JOHN U., Associate Judge.
This is an appeal from a judgment and sentence of manslaughter in the Criminal Court of Record of Polk County, wherein appellant Clarence Jackson Harris was sentenced to the State Prison.
deflected and came to rest near the eleventh rib.
The record indicates that the deceased was a relatively young man, 31 or 32 years of age, six feet tall and weighing 180 to 200 pounds and was very active and strong. The appellant was of a slight build, 70 relatively young man, 31 or 32 years of age, six feet tall strong. The appellant was of a slight build, 70 years of age and had an injured shoulder. The deceased and the daughter had contemplated marriage and had gone so far as to have blood tests made to secure a marriage license, but disagreement occurred and she called the marriage off. This apparently was the cause of the trouble between them.
It appears that the deceased was not armed at the time, but appellant did not know this. The daughter testified that the deceased usually carried a pistol and had drawn it on her and had told her that if she did not marry him nobody else would.
“I tried to get him to leave and he wouldn’t. He said some smart remark and pushed me and pushed me down. Mother saw that and that’s when she called my father back.
“And he said, ‘Cecil, you get on away from her.’ I went in the house and Cecil got out and followed me in the house. He wasn’t invited in.
“Daddy begged him to get out. So daddy jumped up and he jumped up. Daddy was scared of him and I was too. In fact, he had me scared all the time. He threatened me lots of times.
“So daddy got up and went out of the living room. I guess he went into the bed room. I said, ‘Cecil, please leave from here.’ And he got up and left, and he got to the doorsteps, and fact, I went to the door there. He got on the steps and turned around and said, ‘I came out here for trouble and I’ll give you plenty God-damned of it.’ On the order of that. I can’t remember exactly the words he did say.
“But he was still breathing when they put him on the stretcher and carried him off the front porch. That’s the way it was, and I was scared of him. That’s one reason, he had me scared of him, because he told me lots of times if I didn’t marry him, nobody else would.
“A. Well, just as soon as he sot down, he asked Willie wasn’t she going with him, to marry him, and she says, ‘Heck, no.’ And then he popped out and said that bad word about her, and I hopped up and got between him and the dining room. You all seen the tables. And asked him three times to get up and get out of my house, and he just kept talking nasty talk and all all the time.
“I asked him three times and he kindly done that-a-way and then he straightened up and I backed into the dining room and went into my living room and got my gun from under my pillow.
“Q. Now, when you say you backed back in the dining room, what room did you go into to get the pistol?
“Q. You went into the bed room?
“Q. After you got in, where did you go then?
“Q. What did he do then?
A. Come back and reached and got the screen door and best of my knowledge, the door was just about that much open. And you know, a man turning back and you telling him to get out and him coming on you, a big man like that, I was scared of him.
“Q. When he had the screen about that far open, is that when you shot?
A. That’s when the gun went off.
“Q. When you shot him?
“Q. You say you were scared of him?
A. Yes sir, and him coming back in my house.
“Q. All right, was he a bigger man than you are?
“Q. Was he bigger than you are?
A. Yes sir, looked like to me he’d weigh 200 pounds, six foot high, a young man. And here I am disabled, you might say, behind my shoulder.
“Q. How many times did you shoot?
“Q. Why did you shoot him?
A. I was scared of him.
“Q. You was scared of him?
There two witnesses were the only eye-witnesses who testified, and their testimony, as set out above, was never substantially changed, modified or discredited although they were both subjected to very rigid, thorough and masterly cross-examination; and it was never impeached, discredited nor controverted and was rather strengthened by the physical facts, so it must be taken as true. We cite Brannen v. State, 94 Fla. 656, 114 So. 429.
At the conclusion of all of the testimony the defendant made a motion for a directed verdict of not guilty, which was denied by the Court.
The law of self-defense requires everyone to avoid killing when possible and to retreat, if necessary, and consistent with his own safety before taking life, but when a person is in his own home and he or the members of his family are assaulted or placed in apparent imminent danger of great personal injury, he has the right to stand his ground and meet force with force, even to the extent of taking life if he actually believes, and the circumstances and surrounding conditions are such that a reasonably cautious and prudent person would believe, danger of death or great personal injury to be imminent, at the hands of assailant. Wilson v. State, 30 Fla. 234, 11 So. 556, 17 L.R.A. 654; Peele v. State, 155 Fla. 235, 20 So.2d 120; Russell v. State, 61 Fla. 50, 54 So. 360; Lightbourn v. State, 129 Fla. 43, 175 So. 857.
The State, in its very able brief, contends that the homicide was unnecessary and was induced by the unreasonable fear or cowardice of appellant.
Of course, it is the law that men do not hold their lives at the mercy of unreasonable fears or excessive caution of others, and if from such motives human life is taken there is no justification. It is also true that mere words, however abusive, profane or insulting, or opprobrious epithets, do not furnish justification, but it is true that when the person killed is an aggressor and trespasser and by his acts, coupled with such language and threats, induces a reasonable, honest and actual belief of imminent danger of the commission of a felony or great personal injury to another and homicide results, there may be justification.
A person may act upon appearances as they appear to him at the time, even to the extent of taking human life if he honestly and actually believes – and the attending circumstances and conditions are such that a reasonably cautious and prudent person would believe – that he or some member of his family is in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm at the hands of the deceased. The danger need not be real or actual, but the appearance of danger must be both real and imminent and the slayer must honestly believe it is necessary to act in order to save his own life or that of a member of his family from death or great personal injury in order to constitute justification. He must actually and reasonably believe the danger to be actual and the necessity real. Smith v. State, 25 Fla. 517, 6 So. 482; Howell v. State, 66 Fla. 210, 63 So. 421; Lightbourn v. State, 129 Fla. 43, 175 So. 857.
The Jury are the sole judges of the credibility of the witnesses and the weight of the evidence, but not solely of its sufficiency. Bailey v. State, 76 Fla. 213, 79 So. 730. If the verdict is supported by the evidence it will not be disturbed on appeal. The legal effect of competent evidence which is not impeached, discredited or controverted is a question of law. Holton v. State, 87 Fla. 65, 99 So. 244; Brannen v. State, 94 Fla. 656, 114 So. 429.
The undisputed facts of this case establish that appellant, seventy years of age, of slight build and with a crippled shoulder, and his family were peacefully in their modest home in the country on the evening of the slaying when deceased, a man of thirty-one or thirty-two years of age, six feet tall and weighing 180 to 200 pounds, a rejected suitor, came to this house seeking trouble, as he said, and belligerently started an argument with appellant’s daughter, pushed her down in the driveway and, over her protest and that of appellant, followed her into the house cursing and abusing her, and when repeatedly ordered to leave starts out, gets to the steps, suddenly and angrily turns, opens the screen door and starts back into the house and says, “I came here for trouble and I’ll give you plenty of it.” He was probably unarmed at the time but this fact was unknown to appellant, and he could, by reason of his overwhelming prowess, inflict great personal injury with his bare hands.
Deceased was a trespasser, after warning in the home, and an aggressor throughout the difficulty, and we find that any normal and reasonably cautious and prudent person under the attendant circumstances and conditions that surrounded appellant at the time would actually believe, as did the appellant, that he or his family were in imminent danger of death or great personal injury at the hands of deceased. Law and reason did not require or expect appellant to abdicate his home and leave his wife and daughter to the mercy of this enraged man, and we conclude, and hold, that the slaying was justified.
The judgment and sentence is reversed and annulled and the defendant discharged.
KANNER, C.J., and SHANNON, J., concur.

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