Cunningham

The defendant was tried upon an information charging her with the murder of Robert Smith. She was convicted of second degree murder and has appealed from the judgment of conviction and from the order denying her motion for a new trial.

The sole ground raised on the appeal is that the trial judge erred in refusing to give five different instructions requested by the appellant touching the subject of mental incapacity. In these proposed instructions the trial judge was asked to advise the jury that the appellant was entitled to an acquittal if they should find that at the time of the commission of the act she had been laboring under any defect of reason, temporary or otherwise, or was without sufficient capacity to distinguish between right and wrong or was moved by an irresistible impulse and that the law of the state excepted from responsibility for crime insane persons and “incapables.” Though these instructions were refused, the trial judge did instruct the jury fully- on the subject of the necessity of a finding of the existence of a criminal intent, a sound mind, and discretion on the part of the accused. This was followed by instructions covering the presumptions of law…