[Download] "People V. Golden" by Supreme Court Of California # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: People V. Golden
- Author : Supreme Court Of California
- Release Date : January 09, 1961
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 63 KB
Description
Defendant appeals from a judgment of conviction of two counts of statutory rape (Pen. Code, § 261, subd. 1) pursuant to jury verdicts which recommend punishment by imprisonment in the county jail, and from an order denying defendant's motion for new trial. He urges that the testimony of the prosecuting witness, 14 years of age at the times of the alleged offenses (April 2 and May 17, 1958), is inherently improbable and that asserted errors led to verdicts based on passion and prejudice. For reasons hereinafter stated we have reached the following conclusions: Although the testimony of the prosecuting witness as to the acts constituting the charged offenses is not incredible, her testimony as a whole indicates lack of candor. The evidence as to every phase of her relationship with defendant is in sharp conflict. The prosecution erroneously created and exploited before the jury a situation in which evidence explaining the nonproduction of a possibly important witness (defendant's stepdaughter) was misused and overemphasized. In this state of