Court Opinion

ID: 3294314
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2016-07-05 17:11:05.985712+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:22:00.310864
License: Public Domain

I concur in the judgment and the foregoing opinion, but I desire to add that, in my judgment, if the defendant had shown the facts that he sought in vain to introduce in evidence, it would have afforded no justification nor excuse for his conduct in needlessly imperiling the lives of the men in the room. The mere circumstance that gambling was being carried on was not sufficient, as I view it, to warrant the defendant in breaking down the door, with a loaded pistol in his hand. Especially would this be true when he had reason to believe that a fatal affray might ensue. His desire and that of the company to suppress gambling was, of course, commendable, but the method resorted to was too drastic. Human life is too precious to be jeopardized for the purpose of ascertaining whether parties are engaged in a peaceful game of poker. Defendant should have directed the inmates to open the door before resorting to such violence, and I think he should have gone away rather than plunge into the room with his loaded revolver in his hand. Our aversion to vice should not blind us to the more vital consideration of life itself. *Page 24