People v. Haun

By the Court, Belcher, J.: On the 20th of February, 1872, the defendant was indicted for the crime of murder, alleged to have been committed in the killing of one Thomas Walker, in Santa Clara County, on the 23d day of June, 1867. At the trial it was proved that the defendant committed the homicide at the time named in the indictment, and fled to another part of the State, where he remained until shortly before the find[97]ing of the indictment. The defendant was found guilty of murder in the second degree and adjudged to suffer imprisonment in the State Prison for a term of years.

It is claimed that since more than three years elapsed between the commission of the homicide and the finding óf the indictment, during all of which time the defendant was within the State, the offense of which he was found guilty was barred by the statute, and the judgment should, for that reason, be reversed.

Sections ninety-six and ninety-seven of the Criminal Practice Act are as follows: “ There shall be no limitation of time within which a prosecution for murder must be commenced. It may be commenced at any time after the death of the person killed.”

“An indictment for any other felony than murder must be found within three years after its commission.”

Murder is defined by our statute to be “ the unlawful killing of a human being, with malice aforethought, either express or implied.”

Until 1856 the punishment awarded to any person convicted of the crime of murder in this State was death. In that year the Legislature amended the statute by dividing the crime of murder into two degrees, for one of which it prescribed the punishment of death, and for the other imprisonment in the State Prison.

In making this division the Legislature recognized the fact that some murders, comprehended within the general definition, are of a less cruel and aggravated character than others, and, therefore, deserving of less punishment. It also recognized the fact that some murders of the less aggravated class are deserving of less punishment than others of the same class, and it accordingly provided that murders of the second degree should be punished by terms of imprison[98]