Commonwealth v. Boyd

Citations

• 246 Pa. 529
• 92 A. 705
• 1914 Pa. LEXIS 549

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Criminal procedure — Murder—Trials—Position of district attorney in court room — Bight of defendant to consult •with counsel during trial — Bight to sit at counsel table.</p> <p>1. On appeal from a conviction and sentence of death in a murder case, an assignment of error which complains that the trial judge refused upon request to require the district attorney to occupy a place upon the floor of the court room where other counsel sat, hut allowed him to sit in the space between the bench and the bar, during the trial, will be overruled, where, there is nothing on the record to show the positions in the court room occupied by the respective counsel, where the district attorney is not charged with unfair or improper conduct, and where it does not appear that the defendant was prejudiced as a result of the refusal'of his request.</p> <p>2. While in every criminal trial, the accused has a common law right to counsel, and this right may not be abridged by any rule or regulation which would operate to hinder and obstruct free consultation between the accused and his counsel, the refusal of the trial judge, in a murder case to permit the defendant to sit by his counsel, so that the defendant was compelled to occupy a, small enclosed place, about six or eight feet away from the counsel table, was harmless error where no defense on the merits was made, where the statements of the Commonwealth’s witnesses were not challenged, and where it did not appear that the defendant was prejudiced by the action of the court.</p> <p>Indictments — Amendment after arraignment and plea — Act of March SI, I860, P. L. I®!, Section 11 — Evidence—Commonwealth's evidence — Proper questions.</p> <p>■ 3. Where in such cases the indictment charged the killing of a named woman by a man who was also named, but, by a clerical error, the personal pronoun used in referring to each was of the wrong gender, an amendment after arraignment and plea, transposing the words “him” and “her” an