People v. Casey

Citations

• 65 Cal. 260
• 3 P. 874
• 1884 Cal. LEXIS 512

Syllabus

<p>Criminal Law—Constitutional Construction—Instructions as to Effect of Evidence. — The provision of the Constitution, article vi., section 19, which declares that judges shall not charge juries with respect to matters of fact, but may state the testimony and declare the law, is violated by an instruction which declares that “the testimony in the case shows ” certain facts prejudicial to the defendant.</p> <p>Id.—Burglary—Instructions.—Where the court instructed the jury that the owner of the property stolen had testified as to his ownership of all the property recovered, and had identified it, but the evidence showed that he had identified only a portion of it, held, that the instruction was prejudicial to defendant, and warrants a reversal of the judgment against him.</p> <p>Id. —Defective Instructions. — In a prosecution for the crime of burglary, an instruction that “if the defendants took the quilts between sunset and sunrise, they committed burglary in the first degree,” is defective, and constitutes substantial error, although there had been previous instructions given which, when connected with the latter instruction, would remedy the defect. The instruction as given was without qualification, and it would be unsafe to assume that the. jury understood it otherwise.</p>