People v. Durrant

Citations

• 119 Cal. 201
• 51 P. 185
• 1897 Cal. LEXIS 880

Syllabus

<p>Criminal Law—Appeal—Confession of Errors—Immediate Decision—Calendar and Argument Unnecessary.—A criminal cause in which the attorney general has confessed error, so as necessarily to involve the granting to the defendant appealing of all the relief which he seeks by his appeal, will be decided immediately, and it is unnecessary that the cause should be placed upon the calendar, after the regular time for filing briefs has elapsed, and be orally argued before the court prior to the decision thereof.</p> <p>Id.—Object of Rules of Court—Expedition of Causes—Request fob Delay. The rules of this court for the making up of the calendar, and the filing of briefs, are designed to expedite and not to delay the decision of causes, and have been framed with a view of giving all parties ample opportunity to be heard before their causes are decided against them; and where error is confessed, and it is legally impossible that the defendant can have any other or greater relief than the reversal of the order appealed from, a request that the cause be put upon the calendar and argued prior to decision is manifestly intended only for delay, and will not be granted.</p> <p>Id.—Homicide—Sentence of Death—Affirmance of Judgment—Fixing of Subsequent Date for Execution—Continuance—Absence of Counsel. When the sentence of death of a defendant convicted of murder has failed of execution as the result of an appeal, and the judgment of conviction has been affirmed upon appeal, the validity of the judgment is past question in the superior court, and it is not error to refuse a continuance of a hearing appointed for the fixing of a subsequent date for the execution of the sentence, merely because of the absence of a leading counsel in the cause, and it is sufficient to prevent the granting of a continuance that the defendant was represented by other competent counsel.</p> <p>Id.—Inquiry into Facts—Legal Reasons against Execution—Existence and Effect of Judgment—Judicial Notice—Construction