Powers

This is an appeal from a judgment of conviction of the defendant upon a charge of robbery and from an order denying his motion for a new trial.

The principal points urged by the appellant upon this appeal turn upon the admission in evidence of certain documentary matter which seriously reflected upon the character and standing of the defendant before the jury, and with respect to which it is claimed that the district attorney was guilty of gross, persistent, and prejudicial misconduct both in his insistence upon the admission of this objectionable matter, and in his subsequent comment upon its effect before the jury.

The record shows that shortly after the robbery was committed and reported to him, one J. J. Fox, a constable of the township wherein the scene of the crime was laid, sent out certain notices and circulars containing a statement of the commission of the robbery and a description of the suspected offender; and that in response thereto he received from the chief of police of Los Angeles a mailed envelope purporting on its outside to have come from the office of that official, and inclosing a picture and Bertillon description of the defendant, and also a letter from…