People v. Thomas

California Supreme Court

Decided September 18, 1953

California Supreme Court · decided 1953-09-18

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1953-09-18

How this case has been cited

Cited by 93 later decisions — most recently January 2012 · most notably 10 Cal. 3d 703 - People v. Sedeno (1974), 64 Cal. 2d 310 - People v. Conley (1966)

2 federal appellate · 88 state decisions

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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CARTER, J.

¶1-I dissent.

¶2I cannot agree that the evidence is sufficient to support a judgment of murder of the first degree. The judgment cannot be sustained on the theory of lying in wait as the evidence falls far short of establishing this ground and the jury was not instructed on the law applicable thereto. The evidence is sufficient to support a judgment of murder of the second degree and I would modify the judgment accordingly and affirm it as so modified.

¶3Appellant’s petition for a rehearing was denied October 15, 1953.

Carter, J., and Schauer, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.