113 Cal. 569 | Cal. | 1896
The information charges the defendant, together with several other persons, with the murder of one Samuel 0. Clark; and he was convicted of murder in the first degree, with the death penalty attached. ITe appeals from the judgment and from an order denying his motion for a new trial.
The bill of exceptions, which forms part of the transcript, contains a full statement of the evidence given at the trial; but the evidence seems to have been brought here mainly for the purpose of pointing certain exceptions taken to instructions given the jury by the trial judge, for the point is not made that the evidence does not sustain the verdict. Moreover, the record shows that only three exceptions were taken to rulings of the
We have carefully examined all the instructions given; and, considering them as a whole, we see nothing in them erroneous or prejudicial to the appellant. The appellant presented eleven written instructions, and they were all given except the second, in lieu of which an instruction was given substantially the same as the one asked; and these instructions presented appellant’s side of the case very fully and as favorably as he could reasonably have expected. No other instructions were asked by appellant. The only hostile criticism with which the charge can be justly assailed is that, upon some points, it is perhaps too lengthy and elaborate; but we think that' it presents a fair and correct statement of the law applicable to the case. But counsel for appellant, in a brief exceedingly well constructed, endeavor with great acuteness and ability to separate the charge into detached fragments, and to attack each singly and unaided by the context. Of course, if any one independent instruction contains an absolute error upon a particular point of law, such error is not always cured by the fact that the law upon such point is correctly given in another instruction; but, as a general rule, dividing a long charge into minute parts, and analyzing and criticising each part as though it stood independent of all the others, is not a proper method of arriving at the correctness or incorrectness of the whole charge. All the features and modifications of a principle of law cannot usually be stated in one sentence. As was said by Mr. Justice McKinstry, when delivering the opinion of the court in People v. Doyell, 48 Cal. 93: “We must take the charge together, and if, without straining any portion of the language, it harmonizes as a whole, and fairly and correctly presents the law hearing on the issues tried, we will not disturb the
The briefs of counsel for appellant have many divisions and subdivisions; but we deem it necessary to notice only the leading objections which th.ey make to the correctness of the charge.
We see no error in the language: “You should receive the law as I state it to be, notwithstanding you may firmly believe that I am wrong, and that the law is or should be otherwise.” The latter part of the sentence was unnecessary, but it in no way affects the correctness of the proposition that the jury must take the law from the court as declared in section 1126 of the Penal Code, which provides that although the jury have the power to return a general verdict, “ they are bound, nevertheless, to receive as law what is laid down as such by the court.”
The statement by the judge of the theory of the prosecution was not, as contended by appellant, a statement of facts. The jury were carefully informed, both at the commencement and close of said statement, that the judge was only stating the “theory” of the prosecution —what the prosecution claimed. There was no error in this; for instructions should be made, as far as possible, applicable to the particular features of the case on trial—to the issues and contentions developed by the evidence and arguments of counsel. And it appears from the record that the theory of the prosecution was correctly stated. Neither was there any error in the statement of the judge of the defenses of the appellant. The deceased, Clark, was -killed in this way: He was a locomotive engineer on a train moving westerly on a railroad track from the city of Sacramento toward Davisville; about two and a half miles west of Sacramento there is a trestle or bridge over a slough on which the track runs; and when the train reached that trestle the locomotive and several of the cars were thrown from the track over the trestle on the north side, and
The judge charged the jury that, “when a defendant undertakes to establish an alibi, the evidence which he offers, taken with the other evidence in the case, must account for him during the whole period”; and it is contended that this part of the charge is erroneous, because it does not include the proposition of reasonable doubt whether the appellant was present. But, as before stated, it is not to be expected that all the limitations of a principle will be given in every separate sentence of a charge; and in the case at bar the doctrine of reasonable doubt was given in almost all conceivable forms and made applicable to every phase of the case, and upon the specific question of the alibi the judge said : “But if you entertain a reasonable doubt as to his guilt, or as to his whereabouts when his presence is material, you should give him the benefit of that doubt.” Therefore, we see no error in the charge on this point.
The court prepared and gave to the jury three forms of verdict, and it is contended by appellant that in doing so the court erroneously neglected to give, as one form, “guilty of murder in the second degree.” As to this matter the bill of exceptions shows that the judge said to the jury: “There have been prepared for you, gentlemen, three blank forms of verdict which, by con-'
In the briefs of counsel for appellant the subject of legal malice is largely discussed—an admirable subject for refined disquisition; but we see nothing in the charge upon that subject that is erroneous or substantially different from the definitions of malice to be found in the codes. The same can be said as to the charge about reasonable doubt. Of course, it would be much the better course for trial judges, as has frequently been said by this court, to limit their description of reasonable doubt to language which has received repeated
The charge fully informed the jury that an intent to . take human life is a necessary element of murder in the first degree. They were told that in order to convict the appellant of murder in the first degree they must be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the appellant, either personally or in concert with others, killed the deceased with malice aforethought by some kind of willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing, and that “ in order to constitute murder in the first degree, the intent to kill must be the result of deliberate premeditation.” This principle was given to the jury in various forms; and it is beyond question that the evidence abundantly warranted the jury in finding the appellant guilty of murder in the first degree—murder of a most aggravated and shocking character. There was an unnecessary allusion to the fact that the derailing of a train is a felony; but that in no way changed the general nature of the charge.
The one exception to the ruling of the court on the admissibility of evidence arises upon the sustaining of an objection by the prosecution to the following question asked by appellant of his witness, Sims: “ Q. How, I will ask you (you need not answer because I think there will be an objection), if this had been placed that way, so the flanges of the wheel would come
The judgment and order denying a new trial are affirmed.
Gtaroutte, J., Van Fleet, J.., Harrison, J., Henshaw, J., Temple, J., and Beatty, 0. J., concurred.
Rehearing denied.