Culp

Defendant appeals from a judgment entered after a jury convicted him of a charge of voluntary manslaughter. The ease was tried shortly before the decision in Griffin v. California, 380 U.S. 609 [ 85 S.Ct. 1229 , 14 L.Ed.2d 106 ], proscribed any reference to a defendant’s failure to testify in a criminal case. The district attorney argued the adverse inferences that pre-Griffin could be drawn from a defendant’s failure to testify and the court gave the standard instruction, CALJIC 51 Revised, which contained a comprehensive statement of the theretofore accepted California law on the subject. A fairly detailed statement of facts is necessary herein because one of the main questions presented is whether upon the evidence properly admitted at the trial a result more favorable to the defendant could be reasonably expected if a retrial was had with the error eliminated. The facts are as follows:

In midafternoon of February 28, 1965, James Lynne Crone was found dead in a cabin outside of Tulelake, California. He had been living at the cabin with defendant Culp and Delbert Pruett, a codefendant who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Death had occurred between 6 and 9 o’clock that…