Counseling idiots, lunatics and infants to commit crime.

Married women acting under

band.

§ 7. Any person counseling, advising or encouraging an infant, under the age of ten years, lunatic or idiot, to commit any offense, shall be prosecuted for such offense, when committed, as principal, and, if found guilty, shall suffer the same punishment that would have been inflicted on such person counseling, advising or encouraging as aforesaid, had he or she committed the offense directly, without the intervention of such infant, lunatic or idiot.

§ 8. A married woman, acting under the threats, command or coercion of her husband, shall not be guilty of any coercion of hus- crime or misdemeanor not punishable with death, provided it appear, from all the facts and circumstances of the case, that violent threats, command or coercion were used; and in such case the husband shall be prosecuted as principal, and receive the punishment which would otherwise have been inflicted on the wife, if she had been found guilty. Drunkenness. § 9. Drunkenness shall not be an excuse for any crime or misdemeanor, unless such drunkenness be occasioned by the fraud, contrivance or force of some other person or persons, for the purpose of causing the perpetration of an offense; in which case the person or persons so causing said drunkenness, for such malignant purpose, shall be considered principal or principals, and suffer the same punishment as would have been inflicted on the person or persons committing the offense, if he, she or they had been possessed of sound reason and discretion.

Acts committed

§ 10. Acts committed by misfortune or accident shall not by accident, etc. be deemed criminal where it satisfactorily appears that there was no evil design or intention, or culpable negligence.

Commission of crime under threats and menaces.

Proceedings

cused becomes

§ 11. A person committing a crime or misdemeanor, not punishable with death, under threats or menaces which sufficiently show that his or her life or member was in danger; or that he or she had reasonable cause to believe, and did believe, that his or her life or member was in danger, shall not be found guilty; and such threats or menaces, being proved and established, the person or persons compelling, by such threats or menaces, the commission of the offense, shall be considered as principal or principals, and suffer the same punishment as if he or she had perpetrated the offense.

§ 12. A person that becomes lunatic or insane after the where the ad commission of a crime or misdemeanor, ought not to be insane pending tried for the offense during the continuance of the lunacy the prosecution. or insanity. If, after verdict of guilty, and before judgment

pronounced, such person become lunatic or insane, then no judgment shall be given while such lunacy or insanity shall continue. And if, after, judgment, and before execution of the sentence, such person become lunatic or insane, then, in case the punishment be capital, the execution thereof

shall be stayed until the recovery of said person from the insanity or lunacy. In all of these cases it shall be the duty of the court to impannel a jury to try the question, whether the accused be, at the time of impanneling, insane or lunatic.

ACCESSORIES TO CRIMES.

fact.

§ 13. An accessory is he or she who stands by and aids, Accessories at abets or assists; or who, not being present aiding, abetting and before the or assisting, hath advised and encouraged the perpetration of the crime. He or she who thus aids, abets or assists, advises or encourages, shall be deemed and considered as principal, and punished accordingly.

§14. An accessory after the fact is a person who, after Accessories after full knowledge that a crime has been committed, conceals the fact. it from the magistrate, or harbors and protects the person charged with, or found guilty of, the crime. Any person being found guilty of being an accessory after the fact shall be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years, and fined in a sum not exceeding five hundred dollars, in the discretion of the court, to be regulated by the circumstances of the case and the enormity of the crime.

WHO MAY BE WITNESSES IN CRIMINAL CASES.

nees.

§ 15. The party or parties injured shall, in all cases, be Party injured a competent witnesses, unless he, she or they shall be ren- competent witdered incompetent by reason of his, her or their infamy, or other legal incompetency other than that of interest. The credibility of all such witnesses shall be left to the jury, as in other cases.

§ 16. No black or mulatto person or Indian shall be per- Negroes, Mulatmitted to give evidence in favor or against any white per-toes and Indians incompetent. son whatsoever. Every person who shall have one-fourth part or more of negro blood shall be deemed a mulatto; and every person who shall have one-half Indian blood shall be deemed an Indian.

§ 17. Approvers shall not be allowed to give testimony. Approvers. 18. The solemn affirmation of witnesses shall be deemed Affirmation. sufficient. A false and corrupt affirmation shall subject the witness to all the penalties and punishment provided for those who commit willful and corrupt perjury.

OFFENSES AGAINST THE PERSONS OF INDIVIDUALS.

§ 19. Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being, Murder. with malice aforethought, either express or implied. The unlawful killing may be perpetrated by poisoning, striking, starving, drowning, stabbing, shooting, or by any other of the various forms or means by which human nature may be overcome and death thereby occasioned.

§ 20. Express malice is that deliberate intention unlaw-Express malice. fully to take away the life of a fellow creature, which is manifested by external circumstances capable of proof.

Implied malice. § 21. Malice shall be implied when no considerable provocation appears, or when all the circumstances of the killing show an abandoned and malignant heart. The punishment of any person or persons convicted of the crime of murder shall be death.

Manslaughter.

1. Voluntary.

2. Involuntary.

3. Punishment.

Death must take

year and a day to constituto murder, etc.

§ 22. Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of a human being, without malice, express or implied, and without any deliberation whatever. It must be voluntary, upon a sudden heat of passion, caused by a provocation apparently sufficient to make the passion irresistible or involuntary, in the commission of an unlawful act, or a lawful act without due caution or circumspection.

§ 23. In cases of voluntary manslaughter, there must be a serious and highly provoking injury inflicted upon the person killing, sufficient to excite an irresistible passion in a reasonable person, or an attempt by the person killed to commit a serious personal injury on the person killing.

§ 24. The killing must be the result of that sudden, violent impulse of passion, supposed to be irresistible; for if there should appear to have been an interval between the assault or provocation given and the killing, sufficient for the voice of reason and humanity to be heard, the killing shall be attributed to deliberate revenge, and punished as a murder.

§ 25. Involuntary manslaughter shall consist in the killing of a human being without any intent so to do, in the commission of an unlawful act, or a lawful act, which probably might produce such a consequence, in an unlawful manner: Provided, always, That where such involuntary killing shall happen in the commission of an unlawful act, which, in its consequences, naturally tends to destroy the life of a human being, or is committed in the prosecution of a felonious intent, the offense shall be deemed and adjudged to be murder.

§ 26. Every person convicted of the crime of manslaughter shall be punished by imprisonment to the penitentiary for a term not exceeding ten years.

§ 27. In order to make the killing either murder or manplace within a slaughter, it is requisite that the party die within a year and a day after the stroke received or the cause of death administered, in the computation of which, the whole of the day on which the hurt was done shall be reckoned the first.

Venue.

§ 28. If the injury be inflicted in one county and the party die within another county or without the territory, the accused shall be tried in the county where the cause of death was administered. And if the party killing shall be in one county and the party killed be in another county, at the time of the cause of death shall be administered, the accused may be tried in either county.

micide.

§ 29. Justifiable homicide is the killing of a human being Justifiable in necessary self defense, or in the defense of habitation, property or person, against one who manifestly intends or endeavors, by violence or surprise, to commit a known felony, such as murder, rape, robbery, burglary and the like, upon either person or property, or against any person or persons who manifestly intend and endeavor, in a violent, riotous or tumultuous manner, to enter the habitation of another for the purpose of assaulting or offering personal violence to any person dwelling or being therein.

§ 30. A bare fear of any of these offenses, to prevent which the homicide is alleged to have been committed, shall not be sufficient to justify the killing. It must appear that the circumstances were sufficient to excite the fears of a reasonable person, and that the party killing really acted under the influence of those fears and not in a spirit of revenge.

§ 31. If a person kill another in self defense, it must appear that the danger was so urgent and pressing, that, in order to save his own life, or to prevent his receiving great bodily harm, the killing of the other was absolutely necessary; and it must appear also, that the person killed was the assailant, or that the slayer had really and in good faith, endeavored to decline any further struggle before the mortal blow was given.

ficer.

ho

§ 32. If an officer in the execution of his office in a crimi- Killing of an ofnal case, having legal process, be resisted and assaulted, he shall be justified if he kill the assailant. If an officer attempts to take a person charged with treason, murder, rape, burglary, robbery, arson, perjury, forgery, counterfeiting or other crime, denominated felony by this code, and he be resisted in the endeavor to take the person accused, and to prevent the escape of the accused by reason of such resistance, he kill the person accused, the officer so killing shall be justified: Provided, That such officer previous to such killing, shall have used all reasonable efforts to take the accused without success, and that, from all probability, there was no prospect of being able to prevent injury from such resistance, and the consequent escape of such accused person.

avoidable neces

§ 33. Justifiable homicide may also consist in unavoid- Killing by unable necessity, without any will or desire, and without any sity. inadvertence or negligence in the party killing. An officer, who in the execution of public justice, puts a person to death in virtue of a judgment of a competent court of justice, shall be justified. The officer must, however, in the performance of his duty, proceed according to the sentence and the law of the land.

micide.

§ 34. Excusable homicide, by misadventure, is when a Excusable hoperson is doing a lawful act, without any intention of killing, yet unfortunately kills another.