People v. Smith

By the Court, Shafter, J.:

The appellant was indicted for murder and on trial was found guilty of murder in the first degree. The defense was insanity. The defendant offered to prove in support of the defense, that his mother was insane at intervals, for years prior *467to her death, and that she died insane; and that an aunt was now insane and an inmate of a lunatic asylum. The evidence was excluded on the ground of irrelevancy and incompetency.

The fact to be proved was the personal insanity of the defendant at the time the homicide was committed, and it is admitted by the Attorney-General that…