People v. Dawa

CARTER, J. This appeal from a judgment imposing the extreme penalty comes before us pursuant to the provisions of section 1239 of the Penal Code, which section authorizes an “automatic” appeal in all death penalty cases. No brief has been filed on behalf of the defendant, though a “memorandum” has been filed by the attorney-general stating the general nature of the case. An examination of the entire transcript has failed to reveal anything of a prejudicial or reversible character.

It appears that the district attorney of Sacramento County filed an information charging the defendant with the murder of one Lim Ding, a Chinese, on April 19, 1939. Upon his arraignment the defendant entered the dual plea of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. The trial on the general [394]issue was exceedingly brief. The defendant, following an unsuccessful attempt of his counsel to withdraw the “not guilty” plea, offered no evidence by way of explanation of or defense to the homicide charge. The evidence of the prosecution showed, in substance, that on the night of the homicide the defendant, a Filipino laborer of the age of 28 years, attended a Chinese social club or gambling establishment in the city of Sacramento, which he had frequented on prior occasions. At one of the tables he lost approximately $1.65, whereupon he left the establishment. He returned within a few minutes and walked to within a few feet of the deceased, who was the dealer or keeper of the table where defendant had lost his money, and fired a shot from an automatic pistol through the head of the deceased. Defendant immediately ran from the place and was taken into custody by the police a short distance away while he held a pursuing crowd at bay with the pistol. He readily admitted the shooting to the arresting officer, giving as his reasons that he did not like the deceased’s manner of dealing and that the deceased had laughed at him. The autopsy surgeon testified that the gunshot wound had caused the death of the deceased.

As stated, the defendant offered no evidence upon the general issue, and the jury, under the circumstances, returned a verdict of murder of the first degree without recommendation. The trial upon the defendant’s insanity plea then proceeded, as authorized by statute, before the same jury. In view of the ultimate inability of the jury to reach a verdict upon the issue raised by said plea, it was discharged and a new jury sworn to try the sanity issue. At the conclusion of a lengthy trial, wherein evidence making up a transcript of several hundred pages was introduced, the jury returned a verdict finding the defendant sane at the time of the commission of the homicide. Under the verdicts and the law, the trial court had no alternative but to enter judgment imposing the extreme penalty.