8 Cal. 423
Decided July 1, 1857
California Supreme Court · decided 1857-07-01
The defendant, A. F. Demint, was indicted for an assault, with intent to commit a rape. On the trial, the Court charged the jury orally, without the consent of parties. The jury found a verdict of guilty. Motion for new trial made and overruled, and prisoner sentenced to one year’s imprisonment, from which he appealed.
Key passage — most relied on by later courts
“In no case shall any charge or instruction be given to the jury otherwise than in writing, unless by the mutual consent of the parties,”
quoted by 1 later decision, including Boggs v. United States
Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know
Decided 1857-07-01
Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently July 1901
3 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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¶1On the trial of this case the Court below charged the jury orally, without the consent of parties.
¶2The act amendatory of an act to regulate proceedings in criminal cases, passed May, 1855, provides that “ in no case shall any charge, or instruction, be given to the jury otherwise"than in writing, unless by the mutual consent of the parties."
¶3This provision is mandatory, and any departure from it is error. See People v. Buler, July Term, 1856.
¶4Judgment reversed, and cause remanded.