(Download) "Cooper V. Superior Court Of Los Angeles County" by Supreme Court Of California # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Cooper V. Superior Court Of Los Angeles County
- Author : Supreme Court Of California
- Release Date : January 09, 1961
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 75 KB
Description
In this certiorari proceeding Attorney Grant B. Cooper seeks annulment of an order of respondent superior court adjudging him guilty on two counts of direct contempt and fining him $250 on each count. The events leading to the subject commitments occurred during the second trial, before a jury, of the case of People v. Finch and Pappa, Los Angeles County Superior Court Number 220164. The charge was murder. On conviction, if the murder was found to be of the first degree, the punishment could be death. Petitioner, acting as attorney for defendant Finch, was twice adjudged in contempt for disobeying an order of the trial court to refrain from stating, in the presence of the jury, an objection to the making by the judge of comments on the comparative credibility of certain witnesses. The judge had, on his own initiative, recalled the jury from their deliberations for the purpose of reading a prepared statement embodying such comments. Copies of the statement had not been furnished to counsel nor had counsel been permitted to participate in its preparation. Petitioner contends that in the circumstances of the case the order that he refrain from stating his objection in the presence of the jury was not a "lawful" order of the court (within the meaning of Code Civ. Proc., § 1209, subd. 5) and hence that it was not a contempt for him to disobey it. The contention is sound and the judgment should be annulled.