The first four exceptions taken by the prisoner question the competency of the testimony offered by the State in proof of the dying declarations of the deceased. The ground of attack is the absence of sufficient evidence to identify the assailant and to bring the declarations within the established rules of law. These exceptions, in our opinion, must be overruled.
Dying declarations are an exception to the rule which rejects hearsay evidence, but the conditions under which they are admitted by the courts have often been defined. At the time they are made the declarant must be in actual danger of death and must have full apprehension of his danger; and when the proof is offered death must have ensued. ’ S. v. Mills, 91 N. C., 581. These declarations are received on the general principle that they are made in extremity — -“when,” as said by Eyre, C. B., “the party is at the point of death, and when every hope of this world is gone: when every motive to falsehood is silenced, and the mind is induced by the most powerful considerations to speak the truth. A situation so solemn, and so awful, is considered by the law as creating an obligation equal to that which is imposed by a positive oath administered in a court of justice.” Rex v. Woodcock, 168 Eng. Reports, 352.
The testimony excepted to indicates that the deceased was conscious of impending death. A few minutes after he had been shot twice he said in the presence of witnesses, “They have killed Mr. Beal and they have got me; I am going to die.” He had been shot in the abdomen and was bleeding freely. In S. v. Mills, supra, the declaration was, “I am dying, I have been shot three times, I am bound to die”; and in S. v. Shouse, 166 N. C., 306, “I know I am going to die from the wound.” In S. v. Quick, 150 N. C., 820, the language of the deceased is recorded to have been, “He is going to die”; in S. v. Watkins, 159 N. C., 480, “They had killed him”; and in S. v. Franklin, 192 N. C., 723, “He was killed.” Proof of all these declarations was held to be competent.
*289In the present case the trial court made no error in admitting similar proof. The fact that the deceased did not identify the prisoner by name as the one who shot him is immaterial. He did not know the name; the three men who came into the store were strangers. But the deceased described the physical appearance of the prisoner and distinguished him from his two companions. His assailant, he said, was a “light colored man,” a “tall yellow man,” and the other two were smaller and of darker color. The prisoner admitted that of the three men who went into the store he was the light colored man. Upon this evidence the question of his identity was appropriately left to the jury. All the declarations of the deceased relate to the fácts constituting the res gestae of the homicide — that is, to the act of killing and the circumstances immediately attendant. Underhill’s Or. Evidence, 3d ed., sec. 178.
The prisoner excepted to the following instruction: “The use of a deadly weapon in the perpetration of a murder raises a presumption of malice and the law says that wherever there has been an unlawful killing of a human being with a deadly weapon, nothing else appearing, the prisoner charged with the crime would be at least guilty of murder in the second degree, and the burden shifts to him to offer evidence which satisfies the jury that the killing was justifiable, or that it was done under such circumstances as to reduce the crime to manslaughter. In this case there has been no such evidence. There has been no attempt at justification and I therefore charge you that upon the evidence offered here you can return one of three verdicts, which verdict must be based upon the evidence.”
Objection was made to the use of the word “murder” in the first clause; hut if its use was infelicitous, as suggested, we are unable to see that it was prejudicial. There is no evidence of manslaughter or self-defense. If a crime was committed it was murder either in the first or second degree. The sentence to the effect that wherever there has been an unlawful killing with a deadly weapon, nothing else appearing, “the prisoner charged with the crime would be at least guilty of murder in the second degree” must be construed in connection with the entire charge. Every part of the charge must be read with reference to what precedes and follows. This, it has been said, is so plainly fair and just to the judge and to the parties as to have commended itself to the courts as the only reasonable rule. S. v. Exum, 138 N. C., 599; Kornegay v. R. R., 154 N. C., 389. His Honor gave the jury'the express instruction to acquit the prisoner if they did not find from the evidence that he committed or participated in the homicide. If he killed the deceased the presumption is that he did so intentionally, since all persons are presumed to intend the consequences of their acts.
*290It is true that a person on trial for a crime of this character may rely on the State’s evidence to show matters in mitigation or excuse. But as the State offered no such evidence there was no error in the instruction that it was incumbent upon the defendant to establish such matters to the satisfaction of the jury. S. v. Gaddy, 166 N. C., 341.
The sixth and seventh exceptions relate to the court’s recital of the prisoner’s admission that the deceased was killed with a deadly weapon; that he was present at the time of the homicide; that some one else in the crowd ordered the deceased to stick up his hands and then shot and killed him. They relate also' to the court’s remark that by these admissions the question whether the prisoner was at the store was eliminated ; also to the court’s stating the contention that upon the prisoner’s admission and other evidence the jury should find that the prisoner and his companions entered the store for the purpose of committing robbery.
These exceptions do not disclose any substantial error. Only a part of the prisoner’s testimony appears in the record; but in the case on appeal it is said that he testified to other matters which are referred to in the charge and that “all statements in the charge in reference to his testimony are correct.” We must therefore treat these statements as a part of the prisoner’s unrecorded testimony. Neither here nor in the outline of the State’s contentions referred to in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh exceptions do we find anything indicating the court’s expression of an opinion concerning the evidence. In a subsequent part of the charge the court explicitly warned the jury against the impression that he had any right to entertain or express an opinion regarding the prisoner’s guilt or innocence.
The prisoner contends, finally, that there is error in the court’s failure to instruct the jury carefully to scrutinize the testimony of Charlie Myers, an alleged accomplice in the crime. He tendered no prayer for an instruction to this effect. In Rex v. Jones, 2 Camp., 132, Lord Ellenborough observed: “No one can seriously doubt that a conviction is legal, though it proceeds upon the evidence of an accomplice only. Judges, in their discretion, will advise a jury not to believe an accomplice unless he is confirmed, or only so far as he is confirmed; but if he is believed, his testimony is unquestionably sufficient to establish the facts he deposes. It is allowed, that he is a competent witness; and the consequence is inevitable, that if credit be given to his testimony, it requires no confirmation from another witness.” In his comment upon this case Judge Gaston remarked, “We are not aware of any judicial decision in our country at variance with the rule brought hither by our ancestors.” S. v. Haney, 19 N. C., 390, 397. The principle is sustained in a number of our decisions and explicitly approved in the following *291words: “Instruction to scrutinize the testimony of a witness on the ground of interest or bias is a subordinate and not a substantive feature of the trial, and the judge’s failure to caution the jury with respect to the prejudice, partiality, or inclination of a witness will not generally be held for reversible error unless there be a request for such instruction.” S. v. O'Neal, 187 N. C., 22; S. v. Sauls, 190 N. C., 810.
We find no error in the record. The prisoner had the assistance of diligent counsel whose service, rendered under assignment by the court, is ample assurance that the prisoner has had the benefit of every available defense.
No error.