People v. Bushton

Citations

• 80 Cal. 160
• 22 P. 127
• 1889 Cal. LEXIS 882

Syllabus

<p>Criminal Law—Homicide—Evidence—Impeachment—Coroner’s Inquest. — When a witness for the prosecution in a case of homicide testifies inconsistently with the testimony given by him at the coroner’s inquest, it is proper to call his attention to what he had testified to before the coroner, and upon his denial of such testimony, to prove by the coroner that he did so testify.</p> <p>Id.—Reasonable Doubt—Burden of Proof. — Although section 1108 of the Penal Code provides that upon a trial for murder, the homicide by the defendant being proved, the burden of proving circumstances of mitigation, or that justify or excuse it, devolves upon him, it does not mean that he must prove such circumstances by a preponderance of the evidence, and he is only hound to produce such evidence as will create in the minds of the jury a reasonable doubt of his guilt of the offense charged. People v. Hong Ah Duck, 61 Cal. 395, and People v. Eaten, 63 Cal. 422, overruled on this point.</p> <p>Id. — Presumption as to Intention. — Every person is presumed to intend what his acts indicate his intention to have been, and if the evidence shows, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant fired a loaded pistol at the deceased and killed him, the law presumes that the defendant intended to kill the deceased, and unless it is shown, by the evidence, that his intention was otherwise, the law will not hold him guiltless.</p> <p>Id.—Instruction — Excusable Homicide.—An instruction as to excusable homicide following the language of the code is proper.</p> <p>Id. — Plight of Defendant—Assuming Crime in Instruction.—An instruction that the flight of a person immediately after the commission of a crime, or after a crime has been committed with which he is charged, is a circumstance to he weighed by the jury, as tending in some degree to prove a consciousness of guilt, etc., and that if the jury find, from the evidence, that the deceased was killed as charged in the indictment, and that defendant immedia