Page:United States Reports, Volume 209.djvu/64

 38 OCTOBER TEEM, 107. Op[uion of the (kraft. 09 U. 8. authorise the purchase of land for a pest office and courtshouse and the acceptance of a grant of jurisdictiun, there is no reason for taking the lsgunge of the statute in any narrower sense. The argument, although ,ostensibly directed against the stat- ute, must mbrace the Constitution, and, as we have impBed, such an argument comes many years too late.. There was an exception to a refusal of the court to instruct � the jury on the law of jnstifutble homicide. Suitelent instruc- tions were given. The evidence, however, would not have warranted such a verdict. According to the defendant's own testimony the death was due to an accident. According to all the other evidence, even the most favorable, the defendant was upon a platform above Berry, and Berry either was below standing on a beam in a very insecure place, or else was climb- ing up to or upon the platform, when the defendant struck him over the head, according to several witnesses, with an iron bolt, until he dropped fifty or sixty feet. So as to involuntary homi- cide. There was no evidence of such a case, and the jury under the charge must have found that the defendant made an inten- tional and unjustified assault of such a kind that the probable consequences were obviouS, an assault with a deadly weapon, that either directly caused Betty's death or brought it about by his inevitable fall. It also is urged that the court erred in declining to give a somewhat confused instruction concerning sanity, that was asked. The judge instructed the jury that the burden of proof was on the Government to prove that fact beyond.a reasonable doubt, and he was not called upon to go further. Until evi- dence is given o.n the other side the burden of proof is satisfied by a presumption arising from the fact that most men are sane. In this case there was the merest shadow of evidence that the defendant was not of sound mind. The jury were told to con- sider all the evidence, including the bearing of the prisoner and the manner of his own testimony, and the evidence relied upon by him was stated. In the circumstances he could ask I10 HlOre,

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