Summary
In People v. Heslen, 27 Cal.2d 520 [ 165 P.2d 250], on a rehearing of its first decision, and upon motion of the attorney general, not resisted by defendant, the court reduced a conviction of murder in the first degree with death penalty, to second degree murder.
Summary of this case from People v. CostonOpinion
Docket No. Crim. 4619.
January 18, 1946.
APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Sacramento County and from an order denying a new trial. Raymond T. Coughlin, Judge. Judgment modified and affirmed.
J. Oscar Goldstein and Burton J. Goldstein for Appellant.
Robert W. Kenny, Attorney General, David K. Lener, Deputy Attorney General, John Quincy Brown, District Attorney, Albert H. Mundt, Chief Deputy District Attorney, and John B. Heinrich, Deputy District Attorney, for Respondent.
[1] In this case a judgment imposing the death penalty upon defendant for first degree murder was reversed by this court on November 1, 1945, on the ground that the jury was erroneously instructed relative to the distinction between first and second degree murder. ( People v. Heslen, (Cal.) 163 P.2d 21.) On November 29, 1945, pursuant to respondent's petition, a rehearing was granted. The case was then placed on the calendar for argument at which time the respondent made a motion to modify the judgment by reducing it from a judgment of first degree murder to a judgment of second degree murder. Counsel for defendant appeared and stated that he would not resist the motion. Under all the circumstances the motion should be granted.
The judgment of the trial court is, therefore, modified by reducing it to murder of the second degree, and as so modified, is affirmed. The cause is remanded to the trial court with directions to pronounce judgment upon defendant sentencing him for the term prescribed by law for murder of the second degree.
Gibson, C.J., Shenk, J., Traynor, J., Schauer, J., and Spence, J., concurred.