People v. Sternberg

Citations

• 111 Cal. 3
• 43 P. 198
• 1896 Cal. LEXIS 537

Syllabus

<p>Criminal Law—Procuring False Registration—Evidence—Corroboration of Accomplice—Accomplices in Distinct Crimes.—Upon a criminal prosecution for procuring the false registration of a voter in a precinct of which he was not a resident, the testimony of the voter as a prosecuting witness, showing that he was an accomplice of the defendant, and that defendant was guilty of the offense charged, is sufficiently •corroborated by other testimony showing that the defendant was present at the making of the false affidavit for registration by the voter, and that defendant had subsequently made admissions of anticipated trouble on account of the false registration, and had made efforts and paid money to suppress the evidence of the prosecuting witness, though such admissions and efforts were testified to by other accomplices of the defendant in similar but distinct crimes, it being sufficient that they were not accomplices in the particular offense for which the defendant was under trial.</p> <p>Id.—Information—Offense Committed by Deputy Registrar—Surplusage.—In an information stating that the defendant was a deputy registrar of voters, and, “as such deputy registrar,” willfully, feloniously, and unlawfully procured and allowed the false registration of a voter, the charge that the defendant committed the offense “as such deputy registrar” is mere surplusage, and is meaningless in averment, and unnecessary in proof, the statute not being directed against official misconduct, nor limited in its application to public officers, but embraces within its terms “every person who willfully causes, procures, or allows” false registration.</p> <p>Id.—Instructions—Matter of Fact—Accomplice—Request of Defendant-—Harmless Error.—An instruction that the prosecuting witness, according to his own testimony, was an accomplice of the defendant in the crime charged against him, and that a conviction could not be had upon his evidence alone, is favorable and not injurious to the defendant, and