Opinion

People v. Durrant

  • 116 Cal. 179
  • 48 P. 75
  • 1897 Cal. LEXIS 528
Court
California Supreme Court
Filed
Mar 3, 1897
Status
Published
Author
McFarland
On the bench
Henshaw, McFarland

How later courts described this case

  • rejecting defendant's claimed error on a challenge for cause and stating, “The defendant may not have reviewed an error which he has invited or failed to avoid by the legal means at his command.”

Written by the judges who cited it.

The opinion

McFarland, J., concurring.

I have signed the opinion of Mr. Justice Hensliaw, and thereby concurred in his opinion and in the judgment of affirmance. But while I can see no legal ground for a reversal of the judgment, I desire to say that the conviction of appellant would have been much more satisfactory if he had been tried in some county far beyond the reach of the threatening atmosphere which surrounded him at the place of his trial, and where the active and long continued attempts to forestall judicial inquiry and compel a hostile decision could not possibly have had much force. As the case stands it is somewhat difficult to feel sufficiently assured that outside adverse pressure *226 did not liave some insensible influence. Bat, whether or not appellant had a substantially fair trial, notwithstanding circumstances which certainly made it difficult for him to have such a trial, is a question which addressed itself, in the first instance,- to the presiding judge of the trial court; and it is not so apparent that he abused his discretion in determining that question in the affirmative, as to give this court warrant to reverse the order denying a new trial. As to the -other points involved in the appeal, I am clear that no substantial error was committed.

Rehearing denied.

Beatty, C. J., dissented from the order denying a rehearing.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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