People v. Bender

Defendant (known as Richard Bennett) was convicted of the murder of his wife, Rena Bennett. The murder was found to be of the first degree. He appeals from a judgment imposing the death penalty and from an order denying his motion for a new trial. The defendant urges as grounds for reversal the failure of the trial court of its own motion fully to instruct the jury as to the law applicable to circumstantial evidence and the giving of an instruction that, if the specific intent to take life exists at the time of the killing, the offense “would of course be murder of the first degree.” He…