Woodcock

Defendant appeals from a judgment of conviction upon nine separate counts charging her with perjury alleged to have been committed by her in the course of her testimony in the trial of her husband upon a charge of murder. The facts of the case are: On the eighteenth day of September, 1919, the defendant and her husband, Edgar Woodcock,- and a friend named Cooper, were walking along Market Street, in the city and county of San Francisco, in a westerly direction, the defendant walking about twenty feet in advance of her companions. After they had crossed Van Ness Avenue, still going west, the defendant was approached by one Kelly, who, she testified, rattled some money in his pocket and endeavored to make her acquaintance, whereupon she turned to her companions, who rushed up to her, and in the altercation which ensued Edgar Woodcock shot and killed Kelly. Edgar Woodcock was thereupon arrested and charged with murder. Defendant immediately went to her home, which was across the street from the place where the shooting occurred. Shortly thereafter three police officers called at her apartment and obtained an oral statement from her. She was thereupon taken to the Hall of Justice and…

I dissent. None of the points relied upon by the district court of appeal for the reversal of the judgment has any substantial merit. The decision is opposed to the well-settled law of this state on questions of pleading, quantum of proof, and instructions in eases of perjury, and is certain to prove a mischievous precedent. It furnishes another instance of purely technical reasoning, which the rule of decision in the constitution was intended to obviate, totally defeating the ends of justice, for we have before us the statement of the attorney-general that because of the death of Warren Cooper, the principal witness for the state, and of Lester Dorman, the officer in the ease, the denial of the petition will end the prosecution.

The petition should be granted.