Casey

In a criminal prosecution, if there be a question at the trial whether the defendant committed the act imputed to him by the indictment, evidence of his previous good reputation, in respect to the particular trait involved in the inquiry, is admissible for *361 the defense; and such reputation, if established, is one of the facts to be considered by the jury in connection with the other facts, in arriving at a conclusion whether the defendant did or did not commit the act. The weight to which the proof of the previous good reputation of the accused is entitled is a matter for the jury, to be considered in connection with the other facts proved. (People v. Ashe, 44 Cal. 288 .)

In the case at bar, the defendant was indicted for murder, and at the trial, while on the stand as a witness in his own behalf, admitted the fact of the homicide and gave his version of the circumstances under which it occurred; and if his statement of the transaction was true, it tended to prove that the killing occurred in a sudden affray, in which the deceased struck the first blow, and the fatal wound was given with a pocket knife, used in the heat of passion, and without premeditation or malice. No…