People v. Madden

Citations

• 76 Cal. 521
• 18 P. 402
• 1888 Cal. LEXIS 924

Syllabus

<p>Criminal Law—Instructions need not be Repeated.—The refusal to give instructions which have already been given in substance is not error.</p> <p>Id.—Reconciling Conflicting Testimony — Duty of Jury.—It is the duty of the jury in a criminal case to reconcile inharmonious and conflicting .evidence, if they can, regardless of the conclusions to which it may load. Therefore it is not error to refuse an instruction that it is their duty to endeavor to reconcile the evidence with the defendant’s innocence.</p> <p>Id, — Assault with Intent to Murder—Simple Assault—Firing Pistol.—In a prosecution for an assault with intent to commit murder, the refusal of an instruction that the defendant might be convicted of a simple assault is not error when the evidence shows that the assault, if any, consisted in firing a pistol at the prosecuting witness.</p> <p>Id.—Evidence—Conversation of Third Persons.—On the trial the court admitted in evidence a conversation had on the day before the assault, between a brother of the defendant and a third person. The other evidence showed that the matter talked about in this conversation was again mentioned by the defendant’s brother just before the fight in which the assault was committed, and that the third person with whom the conversation was had participated in the fight. Held, that the evidence of the conversation was properly admitted.</p>