People v. Hong Ah Duck

Citations

• 61 Cal. 387
• 1882 Cal. LEXIS 631

Syllabus

<p>Indictment fob Murder.—It is not necessary, in an indictment or information for murder, to set forth and describe the weapon used and the wound inflicted or the other means employed to take human life.</p> <p>Murder—Evidence—Threats.—Testimony as to threats made by defendant, charged with homicide, against the deceased, is competent, though made a long time prior to the commission of the homicide.</p> <p>Id.—Id.-—Expert.—The evidence of a witness, though not an expert, is admissible to describe a wound inflicted by a knife on the hand of the deceased, and which he saw.</p> <p>Id.—Id.—Bloody Clothing—Res Gesths.—The bloody clothing worn by the deceased at the time of the homicide is admissible in evidence, and sometimes may be important as a part of the res gestee.</p> <p>Id.—Id.—Penalty.—The defendant, at the time of the homicide, was a convict in the penitentiary, and the prosecution was permitted to prove, over the objection of the defendant, that he was sentenced for life. The evidence was not offered as affecting in any manner the question of the defendant’s guilt, but such a purpose was disclaimed by the prosecution and was clearly guarded against by the instructions to the jury. The object of the evidence was simply to get the jury to understand, that, if they found the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree and fixed his punishment at imprisonment for life, which they could do under the provisions of the Penal Code, there would be no addition to the punishment to which the defendant was already condemned under a former conviction.</p> <p>Held: The evidence was admissible. In order to exercise the discretion vested in them as to the penalty in a wise and intelligent manner, the jury should be put in possession of all the facts in the case, and if it be true—as it was in respect to this defendant—that a verdict fixing the punishment at imprisonment for life would in fact be no punishment at all, it was proper to inform the jury of that fact.</p> <p>I