People v. Sierp

Citations

• 116 Cal. 249
• 48 P. 88
• 1897 Cal. LEXIS 532

Syllabus

<p>Criminal Law—Homicide — Evidence — Dying Declarations. —Upon a trial for murder, the dying declarations of the deceased are admissible, where the evidence shows that they were made under a sense of impending death.</p> <p>Id.—Deposition at Preliminary Examination—Interpreter.—The deposition of a witness taken at a preliminary examination is not rendered inadmissible because taken through an interpreter, where the examination was conducted in the English language, and the interpreter is present at the trial, and testifies to the correctness of the deposition.</p> <p>Id. — ADMissiBiLrrY of Deposition in Case of Homicide—Constitutional Law.—The deposition of a witness taken at a preliminary examination is not rendered inadmissible in a case of homicide by section 13 of article I of the state constitution, which declares that “ the legislature shall have power to provide for the taking, in the presence of the party accused and his counsel, of depositions of witnesses in criminal cases, when there is reason to believe that the witness, from inability or other cause, will not attend at the trial, ” such provision being intended to refer only to cases of extrajudicial depositions taken de bene esse, and not to exclude, in cases of homicide, testimony judicially taken at the preliminary examination of the defendant.</p>