People v. Wong Sang Lung

Appeal from the judgment upon a conviction of the defendant of murder in the second degree.

The main question presented to the jury for its determination was the identity of the defendant with the person who committed the homicide—two witnesses testifying that the defendant was not the person who shot the deceased, and two that he was. . The dying declaration of the deceased, “I went to Spofford alley, and there Wong Lung shot me,” was also given in evidence. It was shown that Wong Lung is a common name among the Chinese, and that there were many Chinese of that name in San Francisco. At the close of the trial the defendant asked the court to give the jury the following instruction: “Identity of person is presumed from identity of name (but where there is evidence that there are in the neighborhood several persons of the same name this presumption does not prevail. In this ease if the evidence shows that there were several persons of the same name, to wit, Wong Lung, the identity of the defendant with the Wong Lung alleged to be referred to in the declaration of the decedent to Dong Tyng at the City and County Hospital is not presumed).” The court declined to give the instruction…