People v. Wood

The defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death. From the judgment of conviction and from an order denying a motion for a new trial he appeals to this court.

He was one of thirteen convicts who attempted to escape from Folsom Prison on July 27, 1903. On August 1st, according to the theory of the prosecution, he with four other of the convicts were at a place called Manzanita Hill, in El Dorado County, and encountered a posse in pursuit for the purpose of recapturing them. In the conflict that ensued one of the posse, J. Festus Rutherford, was killed, and for…