Opinion ID: 1091604
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: whether the trial court erred in granting the state's manslaughter instruction which omitted elements of the crime.

Text: Appellant assigns as error the granting of State's Instruction No. 12 which defined manslaughter as follows: The Court instructs the Jury that manslaughter is the killing of a human being in the heat of passion, without malice, in a cruel or unusual manner, without authority of law, and not in necessary self-defense; and if the Jury believes from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the Defendant, Herman Kelly, so killed the deceased, Walter Ray Summers, then the Jury will find the Defendant guilty of manslaughter. The apparent flaw in this instruction is the omission of the statutory phrase by use of a dangerous weapon. Miss. Code Ann. § 97-3-35 (1972). In Robinson v. State, 223 Miss. 303, 78 So.2d 134 (1955), appellant challenged a manslaughter instruction on the same grounds, i.e., the omission of the words by the use of a deadly weapon. This Court stated that the omission of the words `by the use of a dangerous weapon' ... was harmless under the facts in this case for the reason that all the witnesses, including the appellant, testified that the weapon used to effect the death of the deceased was a .28 gauge pump shotgun. 78 So.2d at 136. In the case sub judice, as in Robinson, all witnesses, including the appellant, testified that the deceased was killed with a pistol belonging to the appellant. Johnson v. State, 416 So.2d 383 (Miss. 1982), cited by the appellant, is distinguishable in that the manslaughter instruction held erroneous in that case omitted not only the phrase by the use of a deadly weapon but also the phrase without authority of law and the critical phrase not in necessary self-defense. 416 So.2d at 388. This assignment of error is without merit.