People v. Paulsell

Citations

• 115 Cal. 6
• 46 P. 734
• 1896 Cal. LEXIS 962

Syllabus

<p>Criminal Law—Instructions—Reasonable Doubt—Definition in Webster Case—Common Sense—Error.—It is error to refuse an instruction requested by the defendant defining what is a reasonable doubt in the language adopted by Chief Justice Shaw in the Webster case, and approved by this court; and it is also error to instruct the jury that a reasonable doubt must be based upon common sense.</p> <p>Id.-—Distrust of Witness.—The courts in giving an instruction upon the subject of the distrust of a witness who is false in one part of his testimony, should carefully use the exact language of section 2061 of the Code of Civil Procedure, which provides “that a witness false in one part of his testimony is to be distrusted in others.”</p> <p>Id.—Circumstantial Evidence.—It is not proper for the court to read from the opinion of a court on the question of circumstantial evidence, and then instruct the jury that the part quoted is not the law in this state; but the court should instruct only affirmatively as to what the law is, not what it is not; and it is ambiguous and might be misleading to instruct the jury “that all the circumstances should tend to establish the guilt of the defendant, and be inconsistent with any other hypothesis,” since all the circumstances taken together must do something more than tend to establish such guilt; they should establish the guilt of the defendant.</p>