Court Opinion

ID: 9584554
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:49:59.358369+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:08:32.203633
License: Public Domain

*74Gregory, Justice
(Dissenting) :
I respectfully dissent and would reverse and remand for a new trial. In my view the previous decision of this Court in State v. Gorey, 235 S. C. 301, 111 S. E. (2d) 560 (1959) is directly on point and controlling.
In addition to the brief excerpt from appellant’s testimony quoted in the majority opinion, appellant, an abused and battered wife, in her statement offered and admitted into evidence as a state’s exhibit and published to the jury by Lt. Castle, a state’s witness, said: “Tonight, July 23, 1977, at about 8:45 p. m. my husband, Robert, came back home. We started fussing, as usual. Started cussing each other out and calling each other names. I told Robert that it was best that he leave before one of us get hurt. I told him I was going to call daddy. I was heading out the back door and went through the dining room.....He grabbed a chair and picked it up and throwed it at me. I ran in the bedroom. The gun was sitting behind the night stand. I grabbed the gun and turned around. Robert was in the room. At the time I don’t know whether I was pushed or I tripped, but when I came back up straight the gun was aimed and it went off. I didn’t know that I had shot the gun until I saw the blood. . . .” TR. 47.
Mr. Haigler, another witness for the State, testified that appellant stated to him that they had been struggling over the gun and that it went off. TR.. 16.
While the evidence introduced by the State was directed toward proof of murder or voluntary manslaughter, “it was also susceptible of the inference that appellant was guilty of negligence.” State v. Gorey, supra. The negligent handling of a loaded gun causing death will support a verdict for involuntary manslaughter. State v. White, 253 S. C. 475, 171 S. E. (2d) 712 (1969).
Whether the gun was discharged negligenlty or was intentionally fired (with malice or' in sudden heat and passion *75and upon a sufficient legal provocation or in self defense) was a question of fact for the jury. In refusing appellant’s requested instruction of the law of involuntary manslaughter the trial judge committed reversible error. State v. Gorey, supra.
I would reverse and remand for a new trial.
Rhodes, J., concurs.