The Mayor’s Void Shooting Order
During the great fire that followed the earthquake in San Francisco, the mayor issued an order to the guards to shoot persons under certain conditions. On the strength of this order a guardsman shot and killed a citizen. The prosecuting attorney of the county had the offender arrested and charged with murder. At the trial, the paper containing the mayor's order was introduced by the defense in palliation of the crime, while the prosecution contended that the mayor had no authority to issue such an order. When the judge gave his charge to the jury, he instructed them concerning this part of the defense as follows: "Upon this point the court charges you that such an order was legally void, and hence can not be availed of as justification for any act committed under it. The said mayor has no authority to issue such a paper, nor to declare what acts shall constitute crimes, nor the punishment therefor. The court, therefore, charges you that as to this evidence it is not to be considered as tending in any manner to legally justify the defendant in the commission of the act upon which the charge before the court is based. The conduct of the defendant is to be determined under the law of the state as it existed at the time in question." The jury, however, gave the defendant the credit of supposing that he had a right to shoot the man who did not immediately halt when told. At least they acquitted him of the charge of murder. The judge was right.