People v. Demasters

Citations

• 105 Cal. 669
• 39 P. 35
• 1895 Cal. LEXIS 700

Syllabus

<p>Criminal Law—Assault with Intent to Commit Mayhem—Less Offense—Simple Assault—Befusal to Instruct Jury.—Under an information charging a defendant with an assault with intent to commit mayhem, the court should instruct the jury that the defendant may be found guilty of a simple assault, and, where the court has omitted to give an instruction to that effect of its own motion, it is error for the court to refuse so to instruct the jury when asked to do so by counsel for the defendant.</p> <p>Id,—Rule Requiring Party to Present Instructions Before Argument—Object of Rules—Duty of Court—New Trial.—A rule of court requiring parties who desire instructions to be given to present them to the court before argument may be proper and beneficial as a general rule, when applied to doubtful and controverted questions of law; but rules of court are only a means to accomplish the ends of justice and may be departed from when the purposes of justice require it; and such general rule should not be allowed to prevent the court from giving an instruction upon request of the counsel of the defendant which is usually given by courts of their own motion, and a refusal to give such instruction is ground for a new trial.</p> <p>Id.—Erroneous Instruction as to Mayhem—Intent to Bite Lip.—An instruction as to an assault with intent to commit mayhem with respect to the lip of another person should follow the statutory definition by using the word “slit,” employed in section 203 of the Penal Code, and is erroneous if it speaks of “biting” instead of “slitting” the lip. The lip may be bitten in such a manner as not to amount to mayhem, and the intent to “bite” is not the equivalent of an intent to “slit.”</p>