by John Marshall Harlan, Boyd v. United States (142 U.S. 450…
“ Robbery has the very element that enters into it, to distinguish it, to make it a crime, as that of violence upon the person; and it is but a probable and natural and reasonable consequence of an attempt to commit that crime that a human life will be destroyed. ”
by John Marshall Harlan, Boyd v. United States (142 U.S. 450…
“ Those robberies may have been committed by the defendants in March, and yet they may have been innocent of the murder of Dansby in April. Proof of them only tended to prejudice the defendants with the jurors, to draw their minds away from the real issue, and to produce the impression that they were wretches whose lives were of no value to the community, and who were not entitled to the full benefit of the rules prescribed by law for the trial of human beings charged with crime involving the punishment of death. ”
by John Marshall Harlan, Boyd v. United States (142 U.S. 450…
“ The commission of robbery is a crime that may cause the death of an innocent person.'These principles, of the soundness of which we entertain no doubt, were enforced by the court in its charge by numerous illustrations drawn from adjudged cases and text-writers of high authority. This being done, it proceeded: 'Now, it becomes necessary for the court to remind you of what figure these other crimes that have been proven cut in the case. This crime of the robbery of Rigsby may be taken into consideration by you in passing upon the question of the identity of the defendants. ”
