Court Opinion

ID: 9673726
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:17:15.316707+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:23.770008
License: Public Domain

ON APPELLANT’S motion for rehearing.
BEAUCHAMP, Judge.
Appellant has filed quite an exhaustive argument in favor of his motion for rehearing. By brief and oral argument he insists that we erred in not sustaining his contention in each of two exceptions to the court’s charge. The first was that the charge is upon the weight of the evidence and too restrictive to the facts in this case and places a burden of proof upon the defendant. This objection is directed to the following paragraph of the charge: “If you believe from the evidence that the deceased fired a pistol at defendant, the law presumes that he intended to kill the defendant.”
The second exception is directed to the charge as a whole, because it does not properly instruct the jury on the facts of the case. The exception then requested the court to charge the jury that when a homicide takes place and the deceased has a deadly weapon (a pistol in this case) that the evidence raises the issue on the use of the weapon by the deceased, and that it constitutes an absolute presumption that the deceased intended to use the same to take the life of defendant.
Of these two issues, it appears to the writer that the original opinion is clear and sufficiently discusses all of the issues raised by the evidence in the case. The argument in the motion goes afield from this and, while relying on testimony given by appellant to the effect that the deceased shot at him first, he also wants an additional charge. This was discussed in the opinion and we think correctly disposed of.
The appellant’s motion for rehearing is denied.