State v. Fenton

Citations

• 30 Wash. 325
• 70 P. 741
• 1902 Wash. LEXIS 689

Syllabus

<p>HABEAS CORPUS-EFFECT OF APPEAL-STAY OF CRIMINAL PROSECUTION.</p> <p>An appeal from an order denying the writ of babeas corpus to a prisoner charged with the commission of a crime will not operate as a stay of proceedings on the criminal charge pending the determination on appeal of the habeas corpus proceedings.</p> <p>ASSAULT WITH INTENT TO HOB-INSTRUCTIONS-LESSER OFFENSE.</p> <p>Where the defendant was upon trial on an information charging him with an assault with intent to steal the property of another, it was not error to refuse a requested instruction that the jury could bring in a verdict of attempt to commit robbery.</p> <p>SAME — COMMENT ON FACTS.</p> <p>The use by the court of the language “that in making the assault he intended to use whatever force might be necessary to overcome the prosecuting witness and accomplish his purpose— that of robbery,” does not amount to a comment on the testimony, where it was immediately preceded in the same instruction by the charge, “if you believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that at the time in question he committed an assault upon the prosecuting witness for the purpose of robbery.”</p> <p>SAME-CREDIBILITY OF WITNESSES.</p> <p>A charge to the jury that “you are judges of the credibility that ought to be given to the testimony of the different witnesses, and you are not bound to believe anything to be a fact because a witness has stated it to be so, provided you believe from all the evidence that such witness is mistaken, or has knowingly testified falsely,” is a proper statement of the law, without the addition of the qualifying words, “unless corroborated by other competent evidence.”</p> <p>TRIAL — ARGUMENT OF PROSECUTING ATTORNEY — HARMLESS ERROR.</p> <p>A case will not be reversed because of a misstatement of the law made by the prosecuting attorney in addressing the jury, when there was apparently no intent to misstate the law, and no instruction was asked by the defendant from the court for the p