People v. Lee Dick Lung

Defendant has been convicted of murder, and appeals to this court.

Defendant was arrested some months after the commission of the homicide. When arrested he was searched, and upon his person were found two letters purporting to have been written by a Chinese society known as Suey Ting Tong, and addressed to another Chinese society known as Woo Soon Tong. The contents of these letters were to the effect that the friends of the dead man and the officers of the law were upon the track of the defendant, and this society to whom they were addressed was directed to give him information to the end that he might take precautions in the matter of changing his residence. We do not see the importance of these letters, especially in view of the fact that defendant was in no way connected with the sender of them, and no evidence was introduced tending to show that he acted upon their contents in any way. (People v. Colburn, 105 Cal. 648 .) While flight is evidence of guilt, the advice or suggestion of third parties to a defendant that he flee is not. It is the fact of flight that is material and competent evidence, and not what third parties may do or say with reference to the flight. The…