Spencer

Defendant appeals (by operation of Pen. Code, § 1239, subd. (b)) from judgments of death and imprisonment imposed pursuant to jury verdicts finding him guilty of murder in the first degree and robbery while armed with a deadly weapon.

Defendant concedes—as he must, on the record of this case —that the evidence is sufficient to support the jury verdicts. He contends, however, that he was denied a fair trial by reason of a variety of asserted errors, relating principally to the conduct of the voir dire examination of the prospective jurors, the sufficiency of proof of the corpus delicti on the robbery count, the admission of certain evidence and the giving of certain instructions, alleged misconduct of the prosecutor in his closing arguments, and the adequacy of the deputy public defender’s representation of defendant at the trial. We have concluded that these contentions are without merit and that the judgments of conviction should be affirmed.

By information defendant was charged in Count I with murdering Richard Heathman on May 5, 1962, and in Count II with robbing Heathman of four dollars while armed with a deadly weapon, a .38 caliber revolver. It was also charged that…