People v. Wong Ah Ngow

The defendant was convicted in the Court below of the crime of murder in the first degree, for the felonious killing, with premeditation and malice aforethought, of one Wong Ah Sun, and having been adjudged to suffer death, brings this appeal from *152 the judgment, and also from an order denying his motion for a new trial.

The homicide was committed in the City and County of San Francisco; and on the trial it was shown in behalf of the prosecution that the defendant fled from said city and county to a remote part of the State immediately after the murder was perpetrated. The Court below, charging the jury on the question of flight, used the following language :

It will be seen from the foregoing extract from the charge to the jury, that the Court below made the flight of the defendant strong presumptive evidence of Ms guilt. It is true that, in other parts of the charge, the jury was told that flight was a circumstance entitled to greater or less weight, and in many *153 cases, to no weight whatever; of all of which the jury was to judge.

In the first place, let us inquire into the correctness of that portion of the charge which construes flight into a presumption of guilt.…