People v. Wood (1905) · DecisionDepot

People v. Wood

Name: California Superior Court Tentative Rulings
Creator: DecisionDepot
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

California Supreme Court Jan 3, 1905 No. Crim. No. 1168.Published

Before: Shaw

Synopsis

The facts are stated in the opinion of the court.

SHAW, J.

The defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death. From the judgment of conviction and from an order denying a motion for a new trial he appeals to this court.

He was one of thirteen convicts who attempted to escape from Folsom Prison on July 27, 1903. On August 1st, according to the theory of the prosecution, he with four other of the convicts were at a place called Manzanita Hill, in El Dorado County, and encountered a posse in pursuit for the purpose of recapturing them. In the conflict that ensued one of the posse, J. Festus Rutherford, was killed, and for his death the defendant was convicted of murder.

It is contended that the

corpus delicti

was not proven, because, it is said, there is no proof that the wound inflicted upon the deceased caused his death. There is no merit in this contention. The deceased was a young man, nearly nineteen years old, a member of the state militia, apparently in good health, and was actively engaged at the time he was shot in pursuing the convicts to rearrest them. He received a wound from a bullet, which entered on his right side, and, passing through the body, came out on the left side some two inches higher than the point at which it entered. Its course was such that it would probably pass through a part of the heart. Immediately on receiving the wound the deceased dropped, and within a few moments was dead. There was no autopsy, and hence it cannot be said with certainty what particular organs of the body were pierced by the bullet. An autopsy is not necessary as a part of the proof that death was caused by a wound of this character. The circumstances above detailed are sufficient to satisfy any reasonable mind that the deceased came to his death by reason of the wound.

It is further contended that the proof of

corpus delicti

is defective because it has not been shown that the bullet which killed the deceased was fired by the defendant or either of the convicts with him. It is true that no witness testified that he saw the defendant on that occasion, but there is sufficient circumstantial evidence to show that the defendant and four

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other convicts were camped on Manzanita Hill at the time the posse arrived there in pursuit, and that when the deceased and several others of the posse were within twenty-five or thirty feet of the convicts’ camp, and before they had perceived the convicts, they were fired on by the convicts themselves, and that the deceased fell at the first fire. There is much confusion in the testimony, as given in the transcript, as to the whereabouts of the other divisions of the posse at the time this first firing occurred. The defense claims that this first shooting was by some other division of the posse, who fired on the division in which the deceased was engaged. The uncertainty in the evidence as given arises from the fact that the witnesses had before them a large map upon which was designated the topography and the location of the physical objects to which they referred, and that in testifying they would point to the places on the map and designate them by the words, “here” and “there.” Prom the manner in which the testimony is reported we cannot determine what places they were referring to or the relative positions of the different places. This uncertainty is caused, primarily, either by the manner of preparing the bill of exceptions or by the failure of the witnesses to describe in words the places referred to at the time they were pointed out on the map. These motions of the witnesses were, however, a part of the evidence, and the failure to report them or describe them in the bill of exceptions does not lessen the force and effect of the evidence as given to the jury, nor authorize us to conclude that it must have been uncertain, or that it required a different conclusion from that reached by the jury. The map was before them also, and it does not appear that they did not fully perceive and understand the relative positions of the different places. There is nothing in the record indicating to us that the pursuing posses fired on each other. The evidence, so far as it can be understood, clearly points to the convicts as the persons who fired the fatal volley. In this condition of the record we must assume that the jury understood the evidence, and properly concluded that the deceased was killed by the fire of the convicts, and not by a shot from one of the other divisions of the pursuing party.

Synopsis

SHAW, J.

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