Commonwealth v. Bobanic

Citations

• 62 Pa. Super. 40
• 1916 Pa. Super. LEXIS 349

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Perjury—Evidence—Collateral matter — Record of former conviction.</p> <p>While testimony assigned for perjury must be with reference to a matter material to the issue, it is not necessary that it bear directly on such issue, but may relate to another fact bearing on the issue. Perjury may be committed in swearing falsely to a collateral matter with intent to prop the testimony on some other point.</p> <p>On a prosecution for perjury where it appears that the prisoner swore in a prior civil proceeding in which the prosecutrix was plaintiff, that a particular paper on which the plaintiff relied, was shown to him by the latter, and that it was unsigned at the time, the Commonwealth may prove that the prisoner further falsely swore that he had lived with the prosecutrix for six years; such testimony is material, as it tended to give plausibility to the story that plaintiff had shown him the paper in question.</p> <p>In such a case the record of a former conviction for a crime against the United States in a prosecution instituted by the same person who was the prosecutrix in the perjury case, is admissible as showing the state of the prisoner’s mind in its relation to the false testimony which he gave against her in the civil suit.</p> <p>On the trial of an indictment for perjury it is not necessary that the prosecution should make out a ease by the testimony of at least two witnesses; all that is necessary is the direct testimony of one witness and corroborating circumstances.</p> <p>Criminal law — Verdict—Moulding verdict — Perjury.</p> <p>Where a jury returns a written verdict of guilty on certain counts specified, showing an intention to return a general verdict of guilty, the court commits no error in entering the verdict as “guilty as indicted.”</p>