| 350 |
Manslaughter.
Two combate together upon the sudden, and part, and
presently after
meet and fight again, and the one killeth the other; or the one presently
fetcheth a weapon, and cometh and killeth the other. This seemeth
but
Manslaughter, for that it is done all in one continuing fury, which
was at
the first without Malice, and could not in so short time be appeased
or asswaged,
Cromp. 23. b. 24. a. 26. a. b. |
Chap. 147. |
|
So if two have born malice the one to the other,
and be reconciled,
and after meeting again, they fall out upon new occasion, and by agreement
immediately they go into the field to fight, and the one killeth the
other; this seemeth but Manslaughter (causa qua supra) unless
the respite
or distance of time had been such, that by reasonable conjecture their
heart might be asswaged. |
Lamb. 240. |
|
' And yet by good opinions it is lately holden,
that in both these last
' cases and the like, though it be in an continuing fury, yet if it
be wilfully
' done, it it wilful Murther; for which the Offender shall suffer death. |
|
|
See more of Manslaughter before in Murther,
and after in Misadventure. |
|
Non compos
mentis. |
What persons are chargeable with Homicide, and what not.
CHAP. CXLVII. V. 95.
IF one that is Non compos mentis or an Ideot
kill a Man; this is no Felony,
for they have not knowledge of good and evil, nor can have
Felonious intent, nor a will or mind to do harm: And no
Felony or Murther
can be committed without a Felonious intent and purpose; for it is
called Felonia, quia fieri xlebet felleo animo. Co. 4.
144. |
Fitz. N. B.
202.
21 H. 7. 33.
Plo. 19.
Co. 4. 124. |
|
And again, Actus non facit reum, nisi mens sit
rea; and a Mad-man is
Amens, id est, scire mente, without his mind or discretion,
and is only, and
enough punished by his Madness, Co. L. 247. |
|
|
So it is, if a Lunatick person killeth another during
his Lunacy, it is no
Felony, (Plo. 260.) For all acts done by him in his lunacy,
are as the
acts of an Ideot, Co. 4. 125. |
Hob. p. 96.
134. |
|
Uncore tiels persons serra puny in Trespas, pur
hurt sait al corps d'auter. |
|
|
' If another Man shall upon malice procure a Mad-man
to kill another,
' though a Mad-man shall be excused; yet the inciter or procurer shall
be
' punished as a principal, Ba. 57. Vide hic. cap. 108. |
|
|
Now there be three sorts of Persons accounted Non
compos mentis, to
this purpose, and the like. |
|
|
1. A Fool natural, who is so (a nativitate)
from his birth, and in
such a one there is no hope of recovery. |
|
|
2. He who was once of good and sound memory,
and after (by sickness,
hurt or other accident, or visitation of God) loseth his memory. |
Co. 124. |
|
3. A Lunatick, Qui gaudet lecidis intervallis,
and sometimes is of good
understanding and memory, and sometimes is Non compos mentis. |
|
| Infant. |
An Infant of eight years of age or above, may commit
Homicide, and
shall be hanged for it, if it may appear (by hiding of the person slain,
by excusing it, or by any other act) that he had knowledge of good and
evil, and of the peril and danger of that offence. See 3 H. 7.
1. & 12.
Stamf. 27. Fitz. Coron. 118. 129. & Br. Coron. 133,
136. |
|
|
And yet Sir Edw. Coke upon Littleton,
f. 147. saith, That it is of an Infant,
until he be of the age of fourteen years (which in Law is accounted
the age of discretion) as it is with a Man Non compos mentis, and
that in |
|
|
 |
