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Reports of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands |
TRUST TERRITORY OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS, Plaintiff
v.
YUSIM O. MINOR, Defendant
Criminal Case No. 319
TRUST TERRITORY OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS, Plaintiff
v.
KENGEI YAMASHIRO, Defendant
Criminal Case No. 320
Trial Division of the High Court
Palau District
March 26, 1969
Prosecution on charges of first degree murder. The Trial Division of the High Court, D. Kelly Turner, Associate Justice and Pablo Ringang and Francisco K. Morei, Special Judges, held that there was evidence establishing beyond a reasonable doubt the killing of the victim by the accused and that such killing was unlawful, willful and malicious and that accused were guilty in the second degree.
1. Criminal Law-Burden of Proof-Reasonable Doubt
The fine line between "conclusive" - proof and proof beyond a "reasonable doubt" is not for a trial court to determine; the obligation upon the court or jury is that proof be sufficient to "reasonably" rather than "conclusively" remove doubt of guilt.
2. Criminal Law-Evidence-Witnesses' Statements
It is the obligation of the triers of fact to accept or reject all or parts of a witness' testimony.
3. Homicide-Murder in First Degree-Intent
Without intent to kill or premeditation a homicide cannot be of the first degree with its mandatory sentence of life imprisonment.
4. Homicide-Murder in First Degree-Intent
To be murder in the first degree the killing must be premeditated, except when done in perpetration of certain felonies; that is, the unlawful killing must be accompanied with a deliberate and clear intent to take life. (T.T.C., Sec. 385)
5. Homicide-Murder in Second Degree-Intent
In order to support a conviction of murder in the second degree, it is not necessary to find premeditation but it is essential there be a finding, also necessary for sustaining murder in the first degree, that the killing was malicious as well as unlawful and willful.
6. Homicid &-Murder in First Degree--Intent
Malice in connection with the crime of killing is but another name for a certain condition of a man's heart or mind; and as no one can look into the heart or mind of another, the only way to decide upon its condition the time of the killing is to infer it from the surrounding facts, and that inference is one of fact.
7. Homicide--Murder in First Degree--Intent
The presence of absence of the required malice or mental condition marks the boundary which separates the two crimes of murder and manslaughter.
8. Homicide--Corpus Delicti
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