People v. O'Hara (1859) · DecisionDepot

People v. O'Hara

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

California Supreme Court Feb 8, 1859 No. No. 2295Published

Before: Baldwin, Field, Terry

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Holding. The court held that trial instructions in criminal cases must be given in writing, and a waiver of this right cannot be presumed but must be affirmatively shown in the record.

Issues

Whether the court has the power to give oral instructions to a jury in a criminal case.
Whether a waiver of the right to written instructions can be presumed in a criminal case.

Disposition. Reversed and remanded.

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“The right to have the instructions in writing, so as to preserve them in an authentic form, and to secure an entire accuracy of statement is given by the statute; and there is no presumption indulged in criminal cases that any right is waived.”

“The record must show the waiver.”

Synopsis

APPEAL from Sacramento County.

BALDWIN, J. — In this case the instructions of the court were given orally, and within the case of People v. Demint, 8 Oal. 423, the court had no power to give such instructions. We are asked to review that decision. We think it correct. The right to have the instructions in writing, so as to preserve them in an authentic form, and to secure an entire accuracy of statement is given by the statute; and there is no presumption indulged in criminal cases that any right is waived. The record must show the waiver. We think the policy is good, and there can or ought to be no difficulty in the court or the district attorney’s seeing that the proper entry is made on the records whenever this right is waived.

The judgment is reversed and cause remanded.

We concur: Field, J.; Terry, O. J.

People v. O'Hara

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