People v. Rodriguez

OLNEY, J.

The defendant was convicted of murder in the second degree and appeals upon the sole ground that the jury’s verdict of guilty was contrary to the evidence.

The killing by the defendant was clearly shown and was admitted. There were no witnesses of the occurrence, so that the immediate circumstances, the acts of the decedent and the defendant leading up to and culminating in the tragedy, did not appear in the ease for the people, and, in particular, no circumstances of mitigation, excuse, or justification appeared. So far as the case for the people is concerned, it is one where the killing by the defendant is shown without explanation as to just how or why it occurred. Such a ease is’ of itself sufficient to warrant a verdict of guilty of murder.

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The killing by the defendant being shown, the burden was upon him to explain how it happened that he took a human life and to show any circumstances of mitigation, excuse, or justification for his act that might exist. Unless he met this burden to the extent of raising a reasonable doubt as to his being guilty of murder as distinguished from manslaughter or justifiable homicide, the verdict was justified from the fact alone that he had taken human life. Section 1105 of the Penal Code reads: “Upon a trial for murder, the commission of the homicide by the defendant being proved, the burden of proving circum

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stances of mitigation, or that justify or excuse it, devolves upon him, unless the proof on the part of the prosecution tends to show that the crime committed only amounts to manslaughter, or that the defendant was justifiable or excusable.”

This burden the defendant endeavored to meet by himself taking the stand and testifying as to how the killing had occurred. His account, if believed by the jury, would have required of them a verdict of no more than manslaughter at the most and would have justified a verdict of not guilty. But the truth or falsity of the account was for the jury, and if it was not believed by them, their duty was to return a verdict of guilty of murder, as they did. Their verdict was, in effect, a rejection of the defendant’s explanation, and their action in this respect can be overturned on appeal only in case the evidence is such that the appellate court can say that the truthfulness of the explanation so strongly appears as of necessity to raise a reasonable doubt as to the defendant’s guilt in the mind of any reasonable man.