People v. Smith

The defendant, George Smith and John Kazarin, were jointly accused by the grand jury of the county of Alameda of having murdered Reinhold A. Prey on or about December 20, 1930, in said county. They were tried together and convicted of murder of the first degree without a recommendation by the jury that a lesser punishment than the extreme penalty, which is death, be imposed. Judgments imposing the death penalty upon each were accordingly pronounced by the court. Separate appeals were taken from the judgments of conviction and from the orders denying motions for new trials. Objection is made to the sufficiency of the indictment because of the failure to allege that the crime was committed with malice aforethought or that Reinhold A. Prey was a human being. It does not describe the crime as a felony. The crime is pleaded in the form and language of the statute and therefore is sufficient. (Pen. Code, sec. 951.) That the deceased was a human being was amply shown by the evidence. So also was the homicide shown to have been committed wickedly and with malice aforethought. The use of the word “murdered”, which appears in the indictment, is an additional answer to both…