Kawasaki

Defendant, having been convicted of murder in the first degree with life imprisonment as the penalty imposed, appealed from the judgment and the order denying his motion for a new trial.

On the thirtieth day of August, 1912, in the evening about half past seven or eight o’clock, a boy thirteen years of age, named Earl M. Cue, was playing at “shadow boxing” on Fourth Street, between L and M. streets, of Sacramento City, in what is known as the Japanese quarter. While doing so he stepped backward and accidently “bumped” into a Japanese who was passing and the latter grabbed the boy about the neck. Two older lads, the deceased, Henry Cordano, and Ernest Capra, who were sitting on a barrel a little distance away, came up and demanded of the Japanese that he release Earl. A fight then ensued between the two older boys and several Japanese who had come upon the scene. While this was in progress one of the Japanese stabbed Henry Cordano from behind, the knife entering near the base of the skull and severing the spinal cord, producing a wound from which death was inevitable. We need not dwell upon the incidents preceding the homicide as it is not disputed that the crime was murder in the…