Lawson

Two police officers in a patrol car came up behind defendant Emery Charles Newsom’s car. It was dark, in the early morning hours after midnight. The officers threw their red light upon defendant and he pulled over to the curb. He had a passenger riding in the front seat with him, Ben R. Lawson, Jr.

The two men got out of their car. The officers searched it and found 19 marijuana cigarettes on the floor board behind the front seat.

The officers arrested the men, took them to jail, and charged them with possession of the narcotic. (Health & Saf. Code, § 11500.)

Lawson, the passenger, first told the officers that he knew nothing about the marijuana cigarettes. Then, in the presence of Newsom he said that just before the arrest Newsom said to him, “Try to take this dope and get rid of it. . . . You take the ‘beef,’ because you will only get just about 90 days, and I have been arrested for narcotics before.” This Lawson said he told Newsom he would not do.

Trial by jury was waived, and the issues on the pleas of not guilty by both defendants were submitted to the trial judge. On the trial Lawson testified to the request made of him by his codefendant, and to his refusal to take the…