Chaves

The defendant was charged by information with the crime of murder, committed on the fourteenth day of May, 1897, in the county of San Diego, by willfully, unlawfully, and feloniously killing a woman named Gregoria Rodrigues. "When arraigned he moved the court to set aside the information upon the ground that before the filing thereof he had not been legally committed by a magistrate, and the motion was denied. He then demurred to the information, and Ms demurrer was overruled, and thereupon he pleaded not guilty. *137 He was afterward tried and the verdict returned was: “We, the jury in the above-entitled cause, do find the defendant guilty of murder of the first degree, as charged in the information, and in our judgment he should be punished by the infliction of the death penalty.” He moved for a new trial and in arrest of judgment, and, both of these motions being denied, judgment was entered that he be hanged at San Quentin.

From that judgment and the order denying his motion for a new trial this appeal is prosecuted.

1. It appears from the bill of exceptions that the preliminary examination of defendant was had before one Walter B. Ferguson, who styled himself “justice of…