## Facts

- Hardie was at his brother’s house varnishing furniture when a neighbor visited and went into the backyard.
- Hardie took a revolver from a drawer intending to frighten the neighbor “as a joke.”
- The revolver discharged while Hardie was handling it, shooting the neighbor in the head and killing her.
- The gun had been found years earlier by Hardie’s brother; it contained a bullet and previously failed to fire when the brother tried to discharge it.
- Hardie had been told the gun would not fire and believed it was harmless and not in working order.
- Hardie claimed the killing was accidental and argued he lacked intent to injure or kill.

## Issues

1. Whether an unintentional killing caused by handling a firearm in a careless or reckless manner supports a manslaughter conviction, even if the defendant believed the gun was inoperable.
2. Whether the death should be treated as excusable homicide by misadventure when the defendant was engaged in a purportedly lawful act but failed to exercise ordinary care.

## Decision

- The Iowa Supreme Court affirmed the manslaughter conviction.
- The court held that an unintentional killing resulting from careless or reckless handling of a firearm constitutes manslaughter.
- The court rejected excusable homicide by misadventure because Hardie’s conduct fell below the level of care required when handling a deadly weapon.

## Legal Principles

- An unintentional killing may be manslaughter when caused by reckless, heedless, or careless handling of a firearm, even without any design to wound or kill.
- Excusable homicide by misadventure applies only when the defendant is engaged in a lawful act and exercises ordinary care under the circumstances.
- Firearms are treated as deadly and dangerous weapons; a person handling them must use the care an ordinarily prudent person would use in light of the risk.
- A defendant’s good-faith belief that a gun is harmless does not excuse conduct that an objectively prudent person would recognize as unreasonably dangerous.

## Conclusion

The court upheld Hardie’s manslaughter conviction, concluding that “accidental” discharge of a firearm during a prank is not excusable misadventure when the defendant failed to exercise ordinary care required for handling a dangerous weapon.


State v. Hardie, 47 Iowa 647 (Iowa 1878)