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EDWARD D. WORRELL. 123

In the case of the State v. Bower, 5 Mo. 364, in which the
defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree, malice
was inferred from the character of the weapon and wound.
The proof was in substance: That on the night preceding
the homicide the prisoner and deceased stayed all night at
the house of Mrs. Roussiere, two miles from the place where
the murder occurred; that they appeared friendly while
there; that they left her house together the next morning on
toot, still appearing friendly. Prisoner carried a large stick
in his hand; they were seen together about 200 yards from
the place where the body was found; beyond this prisoner
was seen alone wearing a cap afterwards identified as the
eap deceased wore when he left Mrs, Roussiere’s; the body
of the deceased was found with several bruises on it, and the
skull was smashed in as if done with @ club and the hat and
club of prisoner found close by it. There were other circum-
stances in the case, and some confessions, but nothing to show
malice except what I have stated. Judge McGirk, in deliv-
ering the opinion of the Court, said: ‘If Bower did the act
at all, the fact of the stick being carried three miles, and the
evidence of bruises, and the skull being emashed in, proves
wilfulness and premeditation, so that the case comes within
the general description of those murders placed in the first
degree. That the stick was used, the appearance of the body,
the skull beat in, the breast and head bruised, abundantly
prove this; that the killing with the stick was premeditated
before the killing took place, is proved by the fact where the
prisoner got the stick, how he carried it, ete.”

The same principle was recognized by the Supreme Court
im ease of State vy. Dunn, 18 Mo. 519. Dunn was an Irish.
man and deceased a German. They got into a diseussion
about the relative merits of Germany and Ireland, when Dunn
took up the handle of a shovel and struck deceased with it,
producing a wound which resulted in his death. There was no
evidence of any difficulty between them prior to that time.
Judge Seott in delivering the opinion of the Court said,
‘"Whenever it appeara from the whole evidence that the
rime was at the moment deliberately or intentionally exe-

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