Anderson

Defendant was charged by an information filed by the District Attorney of Lassen County with the murder of a young boy on April 30, 1944. Defendant entered a plea of guilty to the charge and thereafter the court took evidence to determine the degree of the offense. Judgment of murder in the first degree was entered on May 22, 1944, imposing the death penalty. This appeal is automatically taken pursuant to section 1239(b) of the Penal Code.

The crime was committed in the town of Westwood, Lassen County. According to the evidence developed by the prosecution witnesses, defendant, formerly a barkeeper, lived in a rooming house in Westwood. About five o’clock in the evening of April 30th he met one Evans in the Westwood Club and told him that he had found a dead boy in his room earlier in the day and that the body was still there. The two men then went to defendant’s room and on the way, defendant twice made the statement that he knew it was the “gas chamber for (him) this time.” He also told Evans not to “call the officers until ten o ’clock, ’ ’ at which time he would ‘ ‘ have everything fixed.” The body of the child was found in the room *861 as defendant had stated, whereupon…