McQuate

The defendant pleaded guilty to the charge of murdering one Ella Straw, and the court fixed a day for the taking of evidence for the purpose of determining the degree of the crime. The defendant did not take the witness-stand either at his preliminary examination or at the hearing before the trial court to determine the degree of the crime to which he had pleaded guilty. There was no eyewitness to the crime. However, shortly after his arrest the defendant made an extended statement which was taken down by a shorthand reporter. In this statement, he admitted the killing of Ella Straw, and detailed the circumstances surrounding the commission of the crime. This statement is relied upon by the prosecution as evidence of defendant’s guilt, and defendant also relies upon it as showing that he is guilty of murder in the second degree only, and that the trial court erroneously found him guilty of murder in the first degree and imposed upon him the death penalty.

Prom the statement of defendant, which was admitted in evidence against him without any serious objection on his part, it appears that the defendant, a man of forty-four years of age, was living with the deceased Ella Straw in…