People v. Burkard

Appeal is from a jury conviction of defendant of manslaughter. He was charged with murder. The court limited the jury’s verdict to guilty of second-degree murder, or manslaughter, or not guilty. Three errors were assigned; one was abandoned upon oral argument before us. There *431remain the questions of the trial court’s refusal to •dismiss the second-degree murder count and the claimed reversible error in the charge to the jury.

The relevant facts follow: Defendant, slight of stature, a mild-mannered, almost self-effacing person had worked as a typesetter for 30 odd years. For 8 years he had…