Edgar

The defendant was charged with and convicted of the crime of rape alleged to have been committed upon a female under the age of consent. He was sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment in the penitentiary, and appeals from the judgment and from an order denying his motion for a new trial.

As is quite frequent in criminal cases appealed from the county of Santa Clara (from which this appeal comes), the misconduct of the district attorney during the trial of the cause is the principal point made for a reversal of the judgment. It seems to be a pronounced proclivity of the district attorney of that county to endeavor, in the trial of a person charged with crime, to circumvent the well-settled and generally well-understood rules of evidence by willfully injecting into the case immaterial and prejudicial matters, through the medium of innuendo, bald assertions of his personal opinion as to alleged facts, and the poor pretense of arguing objections, all obviously intended for the ears and consideration of the jury. In the past similar misconduct, which has been brought to our attention in other recent cases, did not result in a reversal of the judgment, not, however, because it was not…