JUSTIFIABLE HOMICIDE. That which is committed with the intention to kill, or to do a grievous bodily injury, under cir cumstances which the law holds sufficient to exculpate the person who commits it. A judge who, in pursuance of his duty, pronounces sentence of death, is not guilty of homicide ; for it is evident that, as the law prescribes the punishment of death for certain offences, it must protect those who are intrusted with its execution. A judge, therefore, who pro nounces sentence of death, in a legal manner, on a legal indictment, legally brought before him, for a capital offence committed within his jurisdiction, after a lawful trial and convic tion of the defendant, is guilty of no offence. 1 Hale, Pl. Cr. 496-502.
Magistrates, or other officers intrusted with the preservation of the public peace, are justified in committing homicide, or giving orders which lead to it, if the excesses of a riotous assembly cannot be otherwise re pressed. 4 Blackstone, Comm. 178, 179.
An officer intrusted with a legal warrant, criminal or civil, and lawfully commanded by a competent tribunal to execute it, will be justified in committing homicide, if in the course of advancing to discharge his duty he he brought into such perils that without doing so he cannot either save his life or discharge the duty which he is commanded by the warrant to perform. And when the
warrant commands him to put a criminal to death, he is justified in obeying it.
A soldier on duty is justified in committing homicide, in obedience to the command of his officer, unless the command was something unlawful.
A private individual will, in many cases, be justified in committing homicide while act ing in self-defence. See DEFENCE.
See, generally, ARREST; HOMICIDE; 4 Black stone, Comm. 178 et seq.; 1 Hale, Pl. Cr. 496 et seq.; 1 East, Pl. Cr. `z19; 1 Russell, Crimes, 538; 2 Bishop, Crim. Law, 538 et seq. ; 2 Wash. C. C. 515; 4 Mass. 391; 1 Hawks. No. C. 210; 1 Coxe, N.J. 424; 5 Yerg. Tenn. 459; 9 Carr. & P. 22.