Case ID: cal_59/html/0345-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "The Court:", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

[No. 10,514.
    Department Two.]
    THE PEOPLE v. H. E. BROWN.
    Murder—Evidence—Reasonable Doubt—Instructions.—Upon the trial of an indictment for murder, the Court instructed the jury as follows: “You are not legally bound to acquit him (the defendant), because you may not be entirely satisfied that the defendant, and no other person, committed the alleged offense. Held: The instruction was erroneous.
    Appeal from a judgment of conviction in the Superior Court of Mendocino County.
    The defendant was indicted jointly with Samuel Carr, John Billings, and George Gaunce, for the murder of William Wright. For the facts of the killing see People v. Brown (No. 10,601), reported infra, p. 345.
    
      J. A. Cooper, for Appellant.
    No brief on file for Respondent.
   The Court:

Defendant was convicted in the Superior Court of Mendocino County of the crime of murder in the first degree, and on this appeal complains of the following instruction given to the jury by the Court below:

“You are not legally bound to acquit him because you may not be entirely satisfied that the defendant and no other person committed the alleged offense.”

The foregoing instruction was erroneous. (The People v. Kerrick, 52 Cal. 446, and cases therein referred to.)

Judgment reversed, and new trial ordered.