People v. Atherton

Citations

• 51 Cal. 495

Syllabus

<p>Challenge to Jtjeoe.—The action of the court in a criminal case in allowing a challenge to a juror for implied 'bias, is not the subject of an exception.</p> <p>Punishment of Paety convicted of Mubdbe.— Since the passage of the statute permitting jurors, when they find the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree, to limit the penalty to imprisonment for life, instructions of the court calculated to influence the jury upon the question of punishment should be pertinent and have reference to the evidence, and the propriety of such instructions should be governed by the same rules of law which are applied to instructions upon the principal issue.</p> <p>Instecctions to Juey in Cbiminal Case.—Instructions to a jury in a criminal case must be predicated upon some evidence given before the jury.</p> <p>Pbbsumptions in Cbiminal Case.—On a trial for murder, guilty knowledge on the part of the prisoner that the deceased was unarmed, cannot be assumed to exist, but must be affirmatively shown.</p>