United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Hopt v. People, 104 U.S. 631 (1881)

Hopt v. People

104 U.S. 631

Syllabus

1. Under a statute establishing degrees of the crime of murder, and providing that willful, deliberate, malicious, and premeditated killing shall be murder in the first degree, evidence that the accused was intoxicated at the time of the killing is competent for the consideration of the jury upon the question whether he was in such a condition of mind as to be capable of deliberate premeditation.

2. Under a statute which requires the instructions of the judge to the jury to be reduced to writing before they are given and provides that they shall form part of the record and be subjects of appeal, it is error to give an instruction not reduced to writing otherwise than by a reference to a certain page of a law magazine.

The facts are stated in the opinion of the Court.