People v. Abbott

Citations

• 2 Cal. Unrep. 383
• 4 P. 769
• 1884 Cal. LEXIS 802

Syllabus

<p>Jurors—Exception to Allowance of Challenge.—No exception can be taken to the decision of a court allowing a challenge. A person summoned as a juror, who entertains conscientious scruples against finding a man guilty of a crime for which he would be hung, must neither be permitted nor compelled to serve as a juror.</p> <p>Dying Declarations.—Declarations Made by Deceased Held to have been made under a sense of impending death, and therefore admissible as dying declarations. 1</p> <p>Confessions.—Evidence of Confessions Made by a Defendant While Under Arrest are admissible, if voluntarily made, the fact that defendant was under arrest not necessarily 'proving that the declarations were involuntary.</p> <p>Criminal Law—Evidence.—The Conduct, Acts, and Expressions of a person accused of crime, at the time of his arrest, are admissible against him.</p> <p>Criminal Law.—Former Conviction of Felony may be Shown by the examination of the witness, or by record of the judgment, and questions asked of the defendant, when testifying on his own behalf, as to such fact, are proper.</p> <p>Homicide.—Instructions on the Law of Murder and Malice, in the language of sections 187, 188 of the Penal Code, are sufficient.</p> <p>Homicide—Unlawful Act—Presumption.—When an act is proved to have been done by the accused, if it be an act in itself unlawful, the law in the first instance presumes it to have been intended, and the proof of justification. or excuse lies on the defendant to overcome this presumption.</p> <p>Dying Declarations—Jury to Judge Credibility.—Where dying declarations have been admitted as evidence, the question of their credibility comes within the province of the jury, and they are to give to them such credit as, on the whole, they may think them entitled to.</p>