Page:1887 Compiled Laws of Dakota Territory.pdf/1097

Homicide.

§ 6445. Homicide committed with a design to effect death is not the less murder because the perpetrator was in a state of anger or voluntary intoxication at the time.

§ 6446. Homicide perpetrated by an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, regardless of human life, is not the less murder because there was no actual intent to injure others.

§ 6447. Every person who, by previous appointment within this territory, fights a duel without this territory, and in so doing, inflicts a wound upon his antagonist, or any other person, whereof the person injured dies, and every second engaged in such duel, is guilty of murder, and may be indicted, tried and convicted in any county of the territory.

§ 6448. If any person or persons shall associate and agree to enter or attempt to enter by force of numbers, and the terror such numbers is calculated to inspire, or by force and violence, or by threats of violence against any person or persons in the actual possession of any lode, gulch, or placer claim, and upon such entry or attempted entry, any person or persons shall be killed, said persons and all and each of them so entering or attempting to enter, shall be deemed guilty of murder, and punished accordingly. Upon the trial of such cases, any person cognizant of such entry or attempted entry, who shall be present, and aiding, assisting, or in any wise encouraging such entry or attempted entry, shall be deemed a principal in the commission of said offense.

§ 6449. Every person convicted of murder shall suffer death, or imprisonment at hard labor in the territorial penitentiary for life, at the discretion of the jury. Upon trial of an indictment for murder, the jury, if they find the defendant guilty, must designate in their verdict whether he shall be punished by death or imprisonment for life at hard labor, and the judgment of the court shall be in accordance therewith. But upon a plea of guilty the court shall determine the same.

§ 6450. Homicide is manslaughter in the first degree in the following cases:

1. When perpetrated without a design to effect death by a person while engaged in the commission of a misdemeanor.

2. When perpetrated without a design to effect death, and in a heat of passion, but in a cruel and unusual manner, or by means of a dangerous weapon; unless it is committed under such circumstances as constitute excusable or justifiable homicide.

3. When perpetrated unnecessarily either while resisting an attempt by the person killed to commit a crime, or after such attempt shall have failed.

§ 6451. The wilful killing of an unborn quick child by any injury committed upon the person of the mother of such child, and not prohibited in the next following section, is manslaughter in the first degree.

§ 6452. Every person who administers to any woman pregnant with a quick child, or who prescribes for such woman, or advises or procures any such woman to take any medicine, drug or substance whatever, or who uses or employs any instrument or other means with intent thereby to destroy such child, unless the same shall have been necessary to preserve the life of such mother, is guilty in case the death of the child or of the mother is thereby produced, of manslaughter in the first degree.

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