(Download) "State v. Darchuck" by Supreme Court of Montana * eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: State v. Darchuck
- Author : Supreme Court of Montana
- Release Date : January 20, 1945
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 58 KB
Description
1. Homicide ? unlawful act must be proximate cause. To warrant conviction of the crime of involuntary manslaughter by reason of the commission of an unlawful act, it must appear that the - Page 16 doing of the unlawful act contributed to or was the proximate cause of the death. 2. Homicide ? drunken driving is an act "malum in se." Driving while intoxicated or under the influence of intoxicating liquor is an act "malum in se" and is embraced within the statute defining the offense of involuntary manslaughter in the commission of an unlawful act. 3. Homicide ? instruction eliminating question of proximate cause is error. Where the instruction is that if the deceased came to his death by being struck by an automobile driven by the defendant while he was drunk, then the jury should find the defendant guilty of involuntary manslaughter, it was held that the instruction was erroneous in eliminating from the consideration of the jury the element of the proximate cause of the death. 4. Criminal Law ? unobjectionable instructions not curing objectionable ones. The erroneous instruction above mentioned was neither cured by an instruction that the State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that defendants criminal negligence was the proximate cause of the death nor by instructions defining criminal negligence and proximate cause. 5. Criminal Law ? what curative instructions must do. Before unobjectionable instructions cure objectionable ones, the former must either directly refer to and explain and qualify the latter or be supplementary to them and supply what was omitted. 6. Criminal Law ? instruction as to what is proven held error. An instruction that where only two witnesses testifying to the same material point testify directly opposite to each other on such point, then the jury is not bound to consider evidence evenly balanced or that the point is not proved, but may regard all surrounding circumstances proved and give credence to one witness over the others if jurors think that such circumstances warrant it, was erroneous on the authority of State v. Jones, 48 Mont. 505. 7. Criminal Law ? definition of involuntary manslaughter. An instruction is erroneous which defines involuntary manslaughter as the unlawful killing of a human being, without malice, "caused by the defendant" because the use of such words might mislead the jury into believing that the court thought the death was "caused by the defendant" as a matter of law.
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