People v. Sears

Citations

• 18 Cal. 635
• 1861 Cal. LEXIS 257

Syllabus

<p>Courts have the right to make a rule, in criminal cases, that written instructions must bo handed to the Court before the argument of the case commences.</p> <p>Query: whether a judgment of conviction will be reversed in any case because such a rule was enforced.</p> <p>Where injustice would be done a defendant by refusing to consider instructions because not offered before the argument—as where such instructions may be necessary in consequence of the propositions or argument of the District Attorney—the Court should either give the instructions asked by defendant, or so explain its own as to put the law correctly before the jury.</p> <p>In this case, the instructions asked are not correct, and hence defendant cannot assign the refusal to give them as error, the reason for refusing them being immaterial.</p>