People v. O'Neil
THE PEOPLE v. JOHN H. O'NEIL
- Area
- criminal
Analysis
No analysis yet. When one exists it is a model's reading of this opinion — the rulings it reviewed, whether it agrees with the court, and the authorities it checked — shown beside the court's own disposition, never in place of it. How analyses are made.
Opinion
The Court.
Appellant was tried upon an information which alleged that he feloniously, unlawfully, and with malice aforethought, killed and murdered one Philip Stump. The jury returned a verdict in these words: “We, the jury, decide the defendant, John H. O’Neil, guilty as charged, the penalty to be imprisonment for life.” The code provides that “ whenever a crime is distinguished into degrees, the jury, if they convict the defendant, must find the degree of the crime of which he is guilty.” It has been uniformly held that a failure *389to specify the degree of murder under that section vitiates the verdict. (People v. Campbell, 40 Cal. 129.)
The attorney-general confesses error.
Judgment and order reversed, and cause remanded, for a new trial.
Cites, in this corpus
- People v. Campbell No. 2,337 · 1870-10-15
Cited by
- People v. Sachau Docket No. 922. · 1926-07-14
- People v. Bannister No. 21,014 · 1893-11-10
- People v. Lee Yune Chong No. 20879 · 1892-04-29