Note 509 — OF HOMICIDE BY MISADVENTURE OR ACCIDENT.
Reading edition
Such was the case of the ignorant man who went out at night with the intention of shooting a ghost, which was supposed to haunt the village of Hammersmith; he actually shot a bricklayer’s labourer who was returning from his work; this was held to be murder, and the prisoner was convicted; he was not indeed a fit subject for execution, and was therefore pardoned; but this should not be extended into a doctrine, that gross ignorance, producing death, is always a pardonable offence.