Sec. II. Intention will be manifested by the circumstances con- Intention. nected with the perpetration of the offence, and the sound mind and discretion of the person accused. years are că bie. 16. Sec. III. A person shall be considered of sound mind, who is Infants of 14 neither an idiot, a lunatic, or afflicted by insanity, or who hath arri- pable; under 9 are incapaved at the age of fourteen, or before that age if such person know the distinction between good and evil. 17. Sec. IV. An infant under the age of nine years, whose tender Between age renders it improbable that he or she should be impressed with a according to proper sense of moral obligation, or of sufficient capacity deliberately to have committed the offence, shall not be considered or found guilty of any crime or misdemeanor. those ages circumstan ces. 18. Sec. V. A lunatic or person insane, without lucid intervals, Lunatics. shall not be found guilty of any crime with which he or she may be charged; provided the act so charged as criminal have been committed in the condition of such lunacy or insanity. 19. Sec. VI. An idiot shall not be found guilty or punished for Idiots. any crime or misdemeanor with which he or she may be charged. sellors and advisers, pu-, their stead. 20. Sec. VII. Any person counselling, advising, or encouraging Their counan infant under the age of nine years, lunatic or idiot, to commit an offence, shall be prosecuted for such offence when committed, as nishable in principal, and if found guilty shall suffer the same punishment as would have been inflicted on said infant, lunatic, or idiot, if he or she had possessed discretion and been found guilty. men in certain bands in their 21. Sec. VIII. A feme covert, or married woman, acting under Married wothe threats, command, or coercion of her husband, shall not be found cases not puguilty of any crime or misdemeanor, not punishable by death or per- nishable, petual imprisonment; and with this exception, the husband shall be But their husprosecuted as principal, and receive the punishment which otherwise stead would have been inflicted on the wife, if she had been found guilty; provided, it appears from all the facts and circumstances of the case, that violent threats, command, and coercion were used. drunkenness the contri 22. Sec. IX. Drunkenness shall not be an excuse for any crime or Voluntary misdemeanor, unless such drunkenness was occasioned by the fraud, no excuse. artifice, or contrivance of other person or persons, for the purpose of If caused by having a crime perpetrated, and then the person or persons so caus- vance of ing said drunkenness for such malignant purpose, shall be considered others, such a principal, and suffer the same punishment as would have been in- nishable. flicted on the person or persons committing the offence, if he, she, or they had been possessed of sound reason and discretion. others pu accident.. 23. Sec. X. A person shall not be found guilty of any crime or Misfortune or misdemeanor, committed by misfortune and accident, and where it satisfactorily appears there was no evil design or intention, or culpable neglect. coercion, not sun coercing able in their 24. Sec. XI. A slave committing a crime, which, if committed by Slaves under a free white person would not be punishable by this act with death, punishable. by the threats, command, or coercion of his or her owner, or any person exercising or assuming authority over such slave, shall not be found guilty; and it appearing from all the facts and circumstances of But the per the case, that the crime was committed by the threats, command, and them punishcoercion of the owner, or the person exercising or assuming authority stead. over such slave, he or she, the said owner or person, shall be prosecuted for, and if found guilty of the crime, shall suffer the same punishment as he or she, the said owner or other person, would have incurred, if he or she, or said other person, had actually committed the offence with which the slave is charged. Persons acting under threats and 25. Sec. XII. A person committing a crime or misdemeanor, under threats or menaces, which sufficiently show that his or her life or menaces, not member was in danger, or that he or she had reasonable cause to bepunishable. But those lieve, and did actually believe, that his or her life or member was in using such threats, &c. danger, shall not be found guilty, and such threats and menaces being punishable in proved and established, the person or persons compelling by said threats and menaces the commission of the offence, shall be considered a principal or principals, and suffer the same punishment as if he; she, or they had perpetrated the offence. their stead. Accessories pare second de pals in the gree. Freason in the first de gree, death. In the second degree, SECOND DIVISION—Accessories in crimes. 26. Sec. I. An accessory is he who stands by, aids, and assists, or who not being present, aiding, abetting, or assisting, hath advised and encouraged the perpetration of the crime. He or she, who thus aids, abets or assists, or advises or encourages, shall be called a principal in the second degree. Sec. II. [As substituted by act of 19th December, 1818. Vol. III. Pam. 192.] An accessory is a person who, after full knowledge that the crime has been committed, conceals it from the magistrate, and harbours and protects the person charged with or found guilty of the crime. [Vide sec. 154, 5, 6.] THIRD DIVISION.-Crimes against the state and the people. 27. Sec. I. Crimes against the state and the people shall consist in treason in the first degree, and second degree, exciting or attempting to excite an insurrection or revolt of slaves. 28. Sec. II. Treason in the first degree shall consist in levying war against the state in the same, or being adherent to the enemies of the state within the same, giving to them aid and comfort in this state or elsewhere, and thereof being legally convicted of open deed, by two or more witnesses or other competent and credible testimony, or voluntary confession: these cases shall be adjudged treason against the state and people; and when the overt act of treason shall be comnitted without the limits of this state, the person charged therewith may be arrested and tried in any county of this state, within the limits of which he may be found; and being thereof convicted, shall be punished in like manner as if the said treason had been committed and done within the limits of said county. Treason in the first degree shall be punished with death. 29. Sec. III. Treason in the second degree shall consist in the knowledge and concealment of treason, without otherwise assenting to peniten. 3 to or participating in the same. The punishment of treason in the second degree shall be solitary confinement or hard labour in the penitentiary, for any term not less than three years, nor longer than seven years. 7 years. Death to ex cite insurrection. Murder. Express malice. Implied malite. 30. Sec. IV. Exciting an insurrection or revolt of slaves, or any attempt by writing, speaking, or otherwise, to excite an insurrection or revolt of slaves, shall be punished with death. FOURTH DIVISION.-Crimes and offences against the persons of cutizens or individuals. 31. Sec. I. Murder is the killing of a human being in the peace of the state, with malice aforethought, either express or implied. 32. Sec. II. Express malice is that deliberate intention, unlawfully to take away the life of a fellow-creature, which is manifested by external circumstances capable of proof. 33. Sec. III. Malice shall be implied where no considerable provocation appears, and where all the circumstances of the killing show an abandoned and malignant heart. The punishment of murder shall be death. Sec. IV. gree. Murder shall be denominated homicide in the first de ter. 34. Sec. V. Manslaughter is homicide in the second degree: man- Mauslaughslaughter is the killing of a human creature without malice express or implied, and without any mixture of deliberation whatever. It must be voluntary, upon a sudden heat of passion, or involuntary, in the commission of an unlawful act, or a lawful act without due caution and circumspection. manslaugh 35. Sec. VI. In all cases of voluntary manslaughter, there must What shall be some actual assault upon the person killing, or an attempt by the be voluntary person killed, to commit a serious personal injury on the person kill- ter. ing. Provocation by words, threats, menaces, or contemptuous gestures, shall be in no case sufficient to free the person killing from the guilt and crime of murder. 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 homicide, sufficient for the voice of reason and humanity to be heard, the killing shall be attributed to deliberate revenge and punished as murder. Sec. VII. Voluntary manslaughter shall be punished by confine- Punishment. ment, or labour, or solitude, in the penitentiary, for a term not less than one year, nor longer than five. [And vide sec. 247.] ry man 36. Sec. VIII. Involuntary manslaughter, shall consist in the kill- What shall ing of a human being, without any intention to do so; but in the be involuntacommission of an unlawful act, or a lawful act, which probably might slaughter. 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 or riotous intent, the offence shall be deemed and adjudged to be murder. Sec. IX. Involuntary manslaughter, in the commission of an un- Punishment. lawful act, shall be punished by confinement, or hard labour, or solitude, in the penitentiary, for a term not less than six months, and not longer han three years. Sec. X. Involuntary manslaughter, in the commission or performance of a lawful act, where there has not been observed necessary discretion and caution, shall be punished by confinement, or hard Punishment. labour, or solitude, in the penitentiary, for a term not less than three months, and not longer than one year. may be com fine and imprisonment 37. Sec. XI. In all cases of voluntary or involuntary manslaugh- Punishment ter, the court may order the commutation of the punishment in the muted for penitentiary, for that of confinement in the common jail of the county where the offence may have been committed, and a fine to be in the county imposed at the discretion of the court, which fine shall be paid to the clerk of the inferior court, for the use of the poor of the county where the conviction takes place. jail. 38. Sec. XII. There being no rational distinction between excu- What shall be justifiable bosable and justifiable homicide, it shall no longer exist. Justifiable micide. homicide is the killing a human being in self-defence, or in defence of habitation, property, or person, against one who manifestly, intends or endeavours by violence or surprise, to commit a known felony, such as murder, rape, robbery, burglary, and the like, upon either, or against any persons who manifestly intend and endeavour Fear not suf ficient ex cuse. Where a tres in a riotous and tumultuous manner to enter the habitation of another, for the purpose of assaulting or offering personal violence to any person dwelling or being therein. 39. Sec. XIII. A bare fear of any of those offences, 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 man, and that the party killing really acted under the influence of those fears, and not in the spirit of revenge. [See sec. 45.] 40. Sec. XIV. If a person invades or trespasses on the property passer is kill or habitation of another, not with an intention to commit a felony, cumstances the killing shall be murder, manslaughter, or justifiable homicide, according to the circumstances of the case. [See sec. 45.] ed, the cir must deter mine the crime. Killing in 41. Sec. XV. If a person kills another in his defence, it must apself-defence, pear that the danger was so urgent and pressing, that in order to save his own life, 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 endeavoured to decline any further struggle before the mortal blow was given. or under 42. Sec. XVI. In no case shall a person justify the killing of another necessi- other under the pretence of necessity, unless he were wholly without fault, imputable by law, in bringing that necessity upon himself. Killing a 43. Sec. XVII. Killing a slave in the act of revolt, or when the slave, (except said slave resists a legal arrest, shall be justifiable homicide. in revolt,) 44. Sec. XVIII. In all cases, the killing or maiming a slave or white person. person of colour, shall be put upon the same footing of criminality as the killing or maiming a white man or citizen. the same as a Killing in 45. Sec. XIX. If after persuasion, remonstrance, or other gentle self-defence. measures used, a forcible attack and invasion on the property or habitation of another, cannot be prevented, it shall be justifiable homicide to kill the person so forcibly attacking and invading on the property or habitation of another; but it must appear that such killing was absolutely necessary to prevent such attack and invasion, and that a serious injury was intended or might accrue to the person, property, or family of the person killing. [See sec. 39, 40.] Other similar cases. If the homi fuble,the pri discharged. dren,conceal 46. Sec. XX. All other instances which stand upon the same footing of reason and justice as those enumerated, shall be justifiable homicide. 47. Sec. XXI. The homicide appearing to be justifiable, the percide is justi- son indicted shall upon his trial be fully acquitted and discharged. soner shall be 48. Sec. XXII. If any woman shall endeavour privately, either Bastard chit by herself or the procurement of others, to conceal the death of mence any issue of her body, male or female, which, if it were born alive. would by law be a bastard, so that it may not come to light, whether it was murdered or not, every such mother, being convicted thereof, shall suffer an imprisonment at hard labour or in solitude in the penitentiary, for any time not exceeding one year. death. Where the cealment, the either, but not both. 49. Sec. XXIII. If the same indictment charge any woman with indictment the murder of her bastard child, as well as with the offence in the charges murder and con- preceding section, the jury by whom such woman shall be tried, jury may find may acquit her of murder, and find her guilty of concealing the death of the bastard, or acquit her of both offences: But, if the said jury shall find her guilty of the murder, they shall return no verdict the count for the concealment of the death of the bastard; and such mur- if any person shall counsel, advise, or direct such woman to kill the child she is pregnant, or goes with, and after she is delivered of such child, she kill it, every such person so advising or directing Accessories ders. upon shall be deemed accessory to such murder, and shall have the same punishment as the principal shall have. ficient evi murder. 50. Sec. XXIV. The constrained presumption arising from the Concealment concealment of the death of any child, that the child, whose death is alone, not suf concealed, was therefore murdered by the mother, shall not be suffi- dence of cient or conclusive evidence to convict the person indicted of the murder of her child, unless probable proof be given that the child was born alive, nor unless the circumstances attending it shall be such as shall satisfy the minds of the jury that the mother did wilfully and maliciously destroy and take away the life of such child. slaughter, the indict for a 51. Sec. XXV. If any person shall be charged with voluntary or in- In certain voluntary manslaughter, happening in consequence of an unlawful cases of manact, it may be lawful for the attorney or solicitor general to waive the solicitor may felony, by leave of the court, and proceed against and charge such per- misdemeanor son with a misdemeanor; and such person, on conviction for said also, or both. misdemeanor, shall be punished by paying a fine, to be appropriated as the court may direct, not exceeding one thousand dollars, or be imprisoned in the common jail, or both; and the attorney or solicitor general may, without obtaining leave of the court, charge the felony and misdemeanor in the same indictment; and the jury, by whom the said person shall be tried, may find said person guilty of either charge. 52. Sec. XXVI. Mayhem shall consist in unlawfully depriving a Mayhem. person, free or slave, of a member, or disfiguring, or rendering it useless. 53. Sec. XXVII. If any person shall unlawfully cut out or disable In what it the tongue, put out an eye, slit the nose, ear, or lip, or cut off or dis- shall consist. able any limb or member of another, with an intention in so doing to maim or disfigure such person, or shall voluntarily, maliciously, and of purpose, pull or put out an eye or eyes, while fighting, or otherwise, every such person shall be guilty of mayhem. for cutting 54. Sec. XXVIII. A person convicted of cutting out or disabling Punishment the tongue, with the intention as expressed in the previous section, the tongue. shall be punished by confinement and hard labour in the penitentiary, for a term not less than two years, nor longer than seven years. eyes. 55. Sec. XXIX. A person convicted of putting out an eye, with For putting the intention, or voluntarily or maliciously, as before expressed, in fight or otherwise, shall be punished by confinement and hard labour in the penitentiary for any time not less than one year, nor longer than five years: And a person convicted of putting or pulling out the eyes of another, or the eye of another, having but one eye, with a similar intention, or voluntarily or maliciously, while fighting, or otherwise, shall be punished by solitary confinement and labour, for and during the term of his natural life. slitting, or cutting the 56. Sec. XXX. A person convicted of biting, slitting, or cutting For biting, off the nose, ear, or lip of another, with the intention as before expressed, shall be punished by confinement and labour in the peniten- nose, ear, or tiary, for a term not less than one year, nor longer than three years. lip. ber. 57. Sec. XXXI. A person convicted of cutting off or disabling Any other any limb or member of another, not herein designated, with the inten- limb or mem tion as before expressed, shall be punished by imprisonment and labour in the penitentiary, for a term not less than one year, nor longer than five years. 58. Sec. XXXII. Rape is the carnal knowledge of a female, forci- Rape. bly, and against her will. ment. 59. Sec. XXXIII. Rape shall be punished by an imprisonment at The punish hard labour in the penitentiary, for a term not less than two years. nor longer than twenty years. |