People v. Wong Loung

The defendant was convicted of the crime of murder in the first degree and was sentenced to death. He appeals from the judgment of conviction and from the order of the superior court denying his motion for a new trial. Lee Chung, a Chinaman, was shot one evening while he was walking on Harrison Street in the city of Oakland and he died two days later from the effects of his wounds. Two policemen (one a regular and the other a special officer) testified that the shooting was done by three Chinamen and that the defendant was one of them. The policemen said that the defendant after firing the last two shots at Lee Chung ran into an alleyway and that they captured him a few moments later at the other end of the alley from that near which the shooting occurred. When they brought the defendant to the place where the wounded Chinaman lay on the sidewalk, the latter, according to the testimony of the officers, identified defendant as one of his assailants.

The wounded man made two statements. Testimony regarding both of these was admitted in evidence by the court on the ground that the utterances were dying declarations. In both statements the defendant was accused by Lee Chung of being…