Opinion
(Spring Riding, 1799.)
1. If a slave violently shove a white man so that he falls, or is in danger of falling, and he arises and immediately shoots the slave, it is manslaughter.
2. Under the act of 1791 (see 1 Rev. Code, ch. 335, sec. 3) making the willful and malicious killing of slaves murder, no punishment is affixed to the crime of manslaughter committed upon a slave.
THE defendant was indicted for the murder of a negro slave, and now upon his trial it appeared that, returning home from a neighbor's house, with a gun, in a public road, the deceased came meeting him, and the prisoner, a boy of about 13 or 14, said to him jocosely, "Stand off, or I will shoot you; my gun is charged with buckshot." The deceased continued to walk on, and Piver got before on that side the road which the other had taken; whereupon the negro shoved him with some violence to the other side of the road, and Piver would have fallen had he not caught on his hands. The deceased passed by, and Piver rose up and shot him, so that he died.
This is manslaughter; and in the act of Assembly against the malicious killing of slaves there is no punishment affixed to manslaughter; so he must be acquitted.
Verdict accordingly.
NOTE. — Upon the first point, see S. v. Weaver, ante, 54, and the note thereto. As to the second point, the law is now altered. See 1 Rev. Stat., ch. 34, sec. 9.