People v. Chin Hane

Citations

• 108 Cal. 597
• 41 P. 697
• 1895 Cal. LEXIS 896

Syllabus

<p>Criminal Law—Homicide — Evidence—Harmless Ruling.—Upon the trial of defendants accused of murder, where the prosecution, for the purpose of showing motive on the part of one of the defendants, offered evidence to the effect that the deceased was upon the bond of one who had been charged with an assault to murder that defendant, which was objected to upon the ground that there was no evidence that the defendant knew that the deceased had gone upon the bond, such objection goes to the weight of the evidence, rather than to its competency; and, if he had no knowledge of that fact, the evidence was harmless, and no injury could result from its admission.</p> <p>Id.—Testimony by Committing Magistrate—Acquittal of Charge of Assault.—Testimony by a committing magistrate that a person who had been charged with an assault to murder one of the defendants was found not guilty of the charge upon the same day that the deceased, who was surety on his bond, was killed, does not necessarily tend to show the commission of another crime by such defendant.</p> <p>Id.—Testimony as to Sound of Shots.—Where the prosecution claimed that the shots which killed the deceased were fired from inside a house, and the defendants insisted that they were fired in the open air, the testimony of a witness that the shots sounded as though fired inside the building, that they sounded like a drum or something deep, and did not sound as if they were in the air, is not objectionable as giving the opinion of the witness; but the evidence is simply a statement as to the nature of the impressions of sound left upon the ear, and is admissible.</p> <p>Id.—Repetition of Evidence Received without Objection—Harmless Ruling__Where evidence has been already received without objection a repetition of it against objection is harmless.</p> <p>Id.—Photograph of -Absent Witness.—Where the prosecution desired to introduce the deposition of an absent witness taken at the preliminary examination, and placed a witness u