People v. Majors

Citations

• 65 Cal. 138
• 3 P. 597
• 1884 Cal. LEXIS 474

Syllabus

<p>Criminal Law—Murder—Jeopardy—Killing Two Persons by Same Act.—The murder of two persons by the same act constitutes two offenses for each of which a separate prosecution will lie, and a conviction or acquittal in one case does not bar a prosecution in the other.</p> <p>Id__Change of Venue—CouNTEB-ApziDAvrrs.—Upon an application by a defendant in a criminal case for a change of the place of trial, counter-affidavits may be filed by the prosecution controverting defendant’s statements.</p> <p>Id.—Trial for Murder While Under Sentence of Life Imprisonment.—A person may be tried for the crime of murder, notwithstanding he is at the time serving a sentence of life imprisonment for another offense.</p> <p>In.—Plea of Bobher Conviction—New Trial—Appeal.—An appeal does not lie from an order of the Superior Court refusing a new trial on a plea of former conviction, and it is within the power of the court to proceed with the trial of a case where such attempted appeal has been taken and is still pending in the appellate court.</p> <p>In Impaneling Jury—Scruples Against Death Penalty — Peremptory Ghal■lenge.—Subdivision 8 of section 1074 of the Penal Code, which provides for the peremptory challenge of jurors who entertain such conscientious opinions as would preclude their finding a defendant guilty of an offense punishable with death, applies to all prose-cutions for murder, although the crime of murder is not necessarily punishable by death.</p> <p>In.—Where the prosecution in a criminal case passes the jury to the defendant, declining to exercise any challenge, and the defendant exercises his right of peremptory challenge by objecting to one juror, the action of the court in subsequently permitting the prosecution to peremptorily challenge a juror is at most an irregularity not affecting any substantial right of the defendant.</p> <p>Id.—Evidence—EesGestsi.—In a prosecution for murder the condition in which the body and clothing of the deceased were found is properly ad