People v. Bishop
People v. Bishop
Opinion of the Court
This is an appeal from the judgment upon conviction of the defendant upon a charge of murder in the second degree.
The form of the information was unusual in that its drawer did not content himself with following the language of the statute in relation to the charge of murder, but undertook to set forth the details of the homicide which was committed by one Walter Lee Smith upon the decedent, the murder of whom by said Smith the defendant was specifically charged with having aided and abetted. We think the objection which the defendant urged to the information in this form was hypercritical and unsustained by the cases which are cited by him in its support. The information expressly charges that at a certain time and place the said Walter Lee Smith did kill and murder the decedent in the defendant’s presence, and that he then and there aided and abetted the commission of the crime. The defendant was thus informed in a much more precise and detailed and definite manner than he would have been had the charge been general and in the language of the statute just what the accusation was which he was expected to meet, and the information was to that extent more favorable to him than it might have been had it been drawn in the language of the statute. His demurrer to it was, therefore, without merit, and was properlv overruled.
We think the point is not well taken. The rule is well established by a consistent line of cases in this and other jurisdictions that the acts and conduct of an accused person, when a statement of his guilty participation in the crime is made in his presence, may be presented to the jury as circumstances tending to show an implied admission of the truth of such statements. (1 Greenleaf on Evidence, secs. 197, 215; Joy on Confessions, 77; Rex v. Bartlett, 7 Car. & P. 832; People v. McCrea, 32 Cal. 98; People v. Ah Yute, 53 Cal. 614; People v. Mallon, 103 Cal. 513, [37 Pac. 512]; People v. Luie Foo, 112 Cal. 24, [44 Pac. 453]; People v. Amaya, 134 Cal. 531, [66 Pac. 794].) It is to be noted in this connection that the trial court in its charge to the jury expressly limited the purpose for which the statements of Smith, as testified to by Cornett, and the conduct of the defendant while such statements were being made, were admitted, to. that above stated. Clearly, the testimony of Cornett for such limited purpose was admissible in the light of the above authorities; and hence the defendant’s objection to the admission of this evidence was properly overruled.
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The appellant’s final contention is that the evidence is insufficient to justify the verdict of the jury. We have carefully examined the transcript of the testimony and are satisfied that this contention is without substantial merit.
The judgment is affirmed.
Waste, P. J., and Kerrigan, J., concurred.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- The PEOPLE, Respondent, v. JAMES BISHOP, Appellant
- Cited By
- 3 cases
- Status
- Published