People v. Bemmerly

Citations

• 87 Cal. 117
• 25 P. 266
• 1890 Cal. LEXIS 1104

Syllabus

<p>Criminal Law —' Homicide — Evidence ■— Dying Declaration. — Upon the trial of a defendant charged with murder, the dying declaration of the deceased, in order to be admissible in evidence, need not show or state, in terms, that it was made under a sense of impending death, if there is sufficient evidence aliunde the written declaration to show that it was so made.</p> <p>Id. — Written Declaration of Deceased — Notes of Oral Statement. — Where notes were taken of what the deceased said, and a statement written out therefrom, which was read to the declarant, sentence by sentence, and the accuracy of each sentence assented to by him, and then signed in the presence of witnesses, the statement becomes his dying declaration, although the written declaration contains some words that were not used by the declarant in his oral statement.</p> <p>Id. — Practice — Challenge of Juror — Actual Bias — Appeal—Exception. —The ruling of the trial court upon the challenge of a juror for actual bias will not he reviewed on appeal, and its disallowance is not the subject of exception.</p> <p>Id.—Peremptory Challenge.—It is not error to permit the prosecution to peremptorily challenge a juror after he has been sworn, where good reasons are shown therefor.</p> <p>Id.—Instruction •—Reasonable Doubt.—An instruction to the jury defining a reasonable doubt as “ such a doubt as would induce a man of reasonable firmness and judgment to act upon it in matters of importance to himself” is erroneous.</p> <p>Id. — Indorsement of Instructions — Review on Appeal. — In the absence of an indorsement allowing whether a certain instruction was given, it will not be reviewed on appeal.</p>