Court Opinion

ID: 9723314
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 10:11:30.949368+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:46.795862
License: Public Domain

R. B. Burns, P. J.
Defendants were convicted by a jury of first-degree murder, contrary to MCLA 750.316; MSA 28.548. They appeal and we reverse.
The trial judge instructed the jury in part:
"When a man assaults another with a deadly weapon, and a gun is a deadly weapon, in such a manner that the natural and ordinary probable use of such deadly weapon, in such a manner would take life, the law presumes that such a person so assaulting, intended to take life.”(Emphasis added.)
People v Martin, 392 Mich 553, 561; 221 NW2d 336, 340 (1974), followed in People v Lyles, 67 Mich App 620; 242 NW2d 452 (1976), clearly indicates such an instruction is error:
"The law does not imply malice where a deadly *631weapon is used. Michigan has long ago considered malice a permissible inference to be drawn by the jury rather than a presumption of law.”
Reversed and remanded for a new trial.
S. S. Hughes, J., concurred.