People v. Brooks

YORK, J.

Appellant herein was convicted of the crime of robbery and prosecutes this appeal from a judgment of conviction, and order of the court denying motion for a new trial.

The appellant does not contend that the evidence is insufficient to sustain the verdict and judgment, but claims that the evidence was such that the errors complained of were more prejudicial than they ordinarily would be.

As to the refusal of the instruction requested in reference to weighing evidence of alibi testimony, the question is covered by at least three instructions given. The defendant was positively identified as being the negro on the car on the night of the robbery and being the negro who got off the car with the complaining witness and a white companion at Willowville, near Long Beach, a few minutes before the robbery. Although the complaining witness could not identify the defendant, yet the identification by the two witnesses who were on the car, of the defendant, at the same time when his mother and two other witnesses testified he was in Los Angeles at his own home, makes a sharp and positive conflict in the evidence, and the jury, to have convicted the defendant, must have found that his alibi witnesses were testifying falsely. The instruction refused was as follows: “The court instructs you that while the prosecution must establish beyond a reasonable doubt the guilt of the defendant, it is not incumbent upon the defendant to prove an alibi beyond a reasonable doubt. Though the evidence offered to establish an alibi falls short of the weight of moral certainty as to the existence of the alibi, yet if it leaves in the minds of the jurors such a doubt or uncertainty that, taken by itself, they could not find for or against the alibi, they are bound to carry such doubt into the case of the prosecution and to arrange it there as an element of reasonable doubt beyond which the prosecution must establish guilt. The defendant is entitled as much to the benefit of such

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doubt as to any other doubt raised by the evidence, and if its weight alone, or added to that of any other, be sufficient to reduce belief in the minds of the jury as to the defendant’s guilt to a reasonable doubt, you must acquit him.” It will be noted that this instruction is incorrect at least in this, that it assumes an impossible condition, to wit, that the jury under the evidence “could not find for or against the alibi.” In legal contemplation, every issue of fact is the subject of a finding or determination, to be made in accordance with the rules of decision.