GIANINI CASE

DEFENDANT’S REQUEST TO CHARGE

I

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that, in determining the guilt or innocence of the defendant of the offense charged in the indictment, the jury are to consider only the evidence of the case and are to disregard any statement made during the course of the trial, by counsel or the Court, and are not to be influenced or governed by any expression of opinion or action of either the Court or counsel for defendant or the people.

II

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that the jury are not to be influenced, in the consideration of this case, by any comment or expression of opinion in the newspaper reports of this case, and they must disregard any statement or comment contained in any such report, if same has in any way been brought to their attention.

III

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that, in considering this case, after its submission to them, the jury must proceed upon the presumption that the accused, the defendant herein, is innocent of the crime charged in the indictment and that it is necessary for the commonwealth to overcome this presumption by evidence to convince them, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant is guilty of the crime charged against him in the indictment.

IV

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that, in consideration of this case, the jury are bound to act and proceed upon the presumption that the accused is an innocent boy, and this presumption must continue throughout the trial.

V

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that, the defendant being charged with the crime of murder, the commonwealth is bound to prove every and all the essential facts necessary to constitute this crime beyond a reasonable doubt before the jury can convict the defendant of the crime charged in the indictment.

VI

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that, upon the whole case, if the commonwealth has failed to prove all of the facts beyond a reasonable doubt, the defendant is entitled to be acquitted.

VII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that the burden in this case rests with the commonwealth, from the beginning to the end of the trial, to establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, every fact essential to the conviction of the defendant, and if the commonwealth has failed to prove such charge beyond a reasonable doubt, the defendant is entitled to an acquittal.

VIII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that the unintentional killing of a human being by another without motive, intent, premeditation, is neither murder nor manslaughter.

IX

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that the questions of deliberation and premeditation, intent and motive, are purely questions of fact, to be determined by the jury from the evidence alone.

X

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that if the jury cannot say, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant was sane at the time of the commission of the act, and cannot say whether, at that time, he was sane or insane, the defendant must be acquitted.

XI

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that if, at the time the defendant committed the act charged against him, upon seeing the deceased, he was thrown into a state of mind from which he was deprived of his understanding, so as to be unaware of the nature and quality of the act he committed, or so as to be unable to distinguish between right and wrong in reference to that particular act at the time of its commission, this defendant must be acquitted.

XII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that, although sanity is assured and presumed to be the normal and natural state of the human mind, when imbecility is once shown to exist in a person, it is presumed to exist and continue until the presumption is overcome by contrary or repelling evidence proving sanity.

XIII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that if defendant was deprived of his reason at the time the act charged against him was committed, and which resulted from a settled and well-established mental alienation, or from the pressure and overpowering weight of circumstances occurring before and at the time of the commission of said act, the said defendant is legally irresponsible for it and must be acquitted.

XIV

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that if, at the time of the commission of the act, the defendant was under the influence of a diseased mind, and was really unconscious that he was committing a crime, this defendant must be acquitted.

XV

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that the insanity of the defendant need not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

XVI

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that the jury, in considering this case, are bound to act upon the presumption that the accused, the defendant, is innocent, and should endeavor, if possible, to reconcile all the circumstances of the case with that of innocence.

XVII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that the burden of proof rests with the commonwealth in this case, from the beginning to the end of the trial, and the commonwealth are bound to prove that the defendant committed the crime charged in the indictment beyond a reasonable doubt, otherwise the defendant is entitled to be acquitted.

XVIII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that the jury must be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt, from the evidence of the case, of the sanity of the defendant at the time of the commission of the act charged in the indictment, and if the people fail to establish the sanity of the defendant at the time of the commission of the act charged in the indictment, this defendant cannot be convicted of any crime and is entitled to an acquittal.

XIX

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that the law does not require that the insanity, imbecility, or mental aberration which absolves from crime should exist for any definite period, and only that it existed at the moment when the act occurred.

XX

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that if the insanity, imbecility, or mental aberration which absolves from crime operated at the moment that the act was committed, that is sufficient in law to absolve from guilt, and this defendant cannot be convicted of the offense charged in the indictment, or any other offense.

XXI

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that the commonwealth must satisfy the jury beyond all reasonable doubt, that, at the moment the act alleged in the indictment was committed by the defendant, he had reason, perception, and understanding sufficient to enable him to discern right from wrong, and that if he had not, it is the duty of the jury to acquit this defendant.

XXII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that if the jury believe that the defendant did not suffer from any mental aberration which would absolve him from punishment for the act charged in the indictment prior to the commission of the act, or subsequent thereto, but that such state of mental aberration did exist at the moment when the act occurred which the defendant stands charged with, this defendant cannot be convicted of the crime charged in the indictment, or any other crime, and must be acquitted.

XXIII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that if there is a reasonable doubt in the minds of the jury as to whether the act charged in the indictment was committed by the defendant while he was unable to discern between right and wrong, or if the evidence is equally balanced as to this, so that the jury cannot safely and conscientiously determine whether the killing of the deceased was intentional, or was committed by the defendant while he was unable to discern between right and wrong with respect to the act, then this defendant is entitled to the benefit of that doubt and entitled to an acquittal.

XXIV

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that if it finds that the defendant is of a mental age of under twelve years, he is presumed to be incapable of the commission of crime.

(Refused)

XXV

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that if it finds that the defendant is of a mental age of under twelve years, he is presumed to be incapable of crime and that presumption is not removed by proof that he had sufficient capacity to understand the act charged against him and know its wrongfulness, except by evidence that satisfied the jury beyond a reasonable doubt.

(Refused)

XXVI

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that if the jury finds that the defendant is of a mental age of under twelve years, the evidence that he understood the nature or quality of the act charged against him and knew its wrongfulness must be strong and clear beyond a reasonable doubt.

XXVII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that it must find that the understanding of and the capacity for committing a crime is measured not by the chronological years of the defendant, but by the strength of the defendant’s understanding and judgment.

(Refused)

XXVIII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that if the jury find that the defendant was of a mental age of under twelve years, he was incapable of committing the crime charged in the indictment, unless the commonwealth has made strong, clear, and convincing proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was capable of discerning the difference between right and wrong or knew the quality and nature of his act.

(Refused)

XXIX

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that the burden is upon the commonwealth to show that the defendant has intelligence and maturity of judgment sufficient to render him capable of harboring a criminal intent.

XXX

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that if no motive has been established for the crime, the jury must regard it as important in its bearing upon the question of the defendant’s mental condition at the time of the commission of the act charged against him.

XXXI

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that if the commonwealth have established merely a slight, trifling, and inconsequential motive for the commission of the act charged in the indictment, they should regard it as important and give it more consideration in connection with the question of the defendant’s mental condition.

XXXII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that the commission of the crime charged in the indictment by a child of tender years from its very nature raises the question of abnormality of the defendant’s mind and in the absence of clear, strong, and convincing evidence on the part of the commonwealth, it must conclude that the defendant’s mental condition was such that he did not understand the wrongfulness of his act or understand the nature and quality of his act.

XXXIII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that evidence of the want of a rational and reasonable motive on the part of the defendant for the perpetration of the act charged in the indictment is to be considered by the jury as strong corroboration of the fact of his mental irresponsibility.

XXXIV

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that the perpetration of the act charged in the indictment without any apparent motive or object, but against every motive which would appear to be naturally influential with the defendant, that they must at once inquire whether or not the defendant was of sound mind and take into consideration with the other evidence of this case that he was not of sound mind, the absence of sufficient motive must lead them to conclude that he was of unsound mind and could not distinguish between right and wrong or know the nature and quality of his act.

XXXV

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that the absence of a clear and convincing motive in itself is evidence of an unsound mind.

XXXVI

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that if the defendant acted without any reasonable or rational motive or object, but against every motive and object, which it would appear should have been influential with him, that fact in itself raises a presumption that the defendant was of such unsound mind that he could not distinguish between right and wrong or know the nature or quality of his act.

XXXVII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that they have no right to presume a motive from the mere commission of the crime and have no right to speculate, guess, or surmise or supply any motive for the commission of the act charged in the indictment.

XXXVIII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that the failure of the commonwealth to call as witnesses Drs. Maybon and Palmer, who made examinations of the defendant, to testify as to his mental condition, raises the inference that if they had been called as witnesses, they would have testified adversely to the commonwealth in respect to the defendant’s mental condition.

XXXIX

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that from the failure of the commonwealth to call as witnesses Drs. Maybon and Palmer, who examined the defendant, the jury may infer that they would have testified that the defendant was a high-grade imbecile who was laboring under such defect of reason as not to know the nature and quality of the act of which he is charged in the indictment or not to know the act was wrong at the time it was committed.

XL

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that from the failure of the commonwealth to call as witnesses Drs. Maybon and Palmer, the jury may infer that had they been called they would have testified unfavorably and adversely to the commonwealth, especially in the absence of any explanation made under oath as to why they were not called.

XLI

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that if the jury acquit the defendant on the ground of insanity, in that event the jury should specify in its verdict that it acquits him on the ground of insanity.

XLII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that if the jury acquit the defendant upon the ground of insanity, it will become the duty of the Court to order him committed to a State Asylum.

XLIII

Defendant requests your Honor to charge that if the jury acquit the defendant on the ground of insanity, in this case such insanity will mean imbecility, and that as imbecility cannot be cured, it will become the duty of the Court to order him committed to a State Asylum for the rest of his actual life.

XLIV

Defendant requests your Honor to charge the jury that the denial of the several motions made by defendant’s counsel throughout the trial, and the rulings of the Court upon objections, and refusals by the Court to charge as requested, are not to be taken as any expression of opinion on the part of the Court upon the facts of this case, but are only rulings upon the law, about which the jury has nothing to do.

Note. Requests XXIV, XXV, XXVII, and XXVIII, the Court refused to charge.