Appeal from the Hinth Judicial District.

Indictment for murder.

Defendant was arraigned on the fourteenth day of December, 1861, and plead guilty; thereupon the Court fixed the twenty-first day of December to have witnesses examined in reference to the degree of guilt and to pronounce judgment. On the twenty-first of December, the defendant was brought into Court, and two witnesses were examined touching the circumstances of the killing. On the conclusion of the examination, defendant was asked by the Court if he had any cause to show why judgment should not be pronounced; and no cause being shown, the Court proceeded to declare that from the plea and the evidence it found the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree, and adjudged him so guilty, and passed sentence of death accordingly.

The defendant appeals, and assigns the following errors:

1. That after the plea of “ guilty ” by the defendant was entered, the Court did not call a jury to hear evidence and determine the degree of guilt".

2. That the Court, after the plea of guilty by the defendant, did not call witnesses to determine the degree of guilt until he was brought up to he sentenced.

8. That the Court, after hearing the testimony of the witnesses,proceeded immediately to the- sentence of the defendant, without-waiting the lapse of time provided for by the statute. (Crim. Pr. Act, 448.)

4. That the Court did not render a verdict and judgment thereon determining the degree of guilt as required by law.

The portion of the Act concerning Crimes and Punishments referred to in the opinion was passed April 19th, 1856, and after defining what shall constitute murder in the first degree, and what murder in the second degree, and providing that the jury shall, when the trial is by jury, designate the degree of the murder in then verdict, continues: “ but if such person shall be convicted on confession in open Court, the Court shall proceed by examination of witnesses to determine the degree of the crime, and give sentence accordingly.” Section four hundred and forty-eight of the Criminal Practice Act was passed "with the body of the act in 1851, and is as follows: “ The time appointed (for pronouncing judgment after a plea or verdict of guilty) shall be at least two days after the verdict, if the Court intend to remain in session so long, or if not, as remote a'time as can reasonably be allowed. But in no case shall judgment be rendered in less than six hours after the verdict.”