Commonwealth v. Bryson

Citations

• 276 Pa. 566
• 120 A. 552
• 1923 Pa. LEXIS 634

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Murder — Instructions as to law — Province of court and jury.</p> <p>1. It is' the duty of the jury to take the law from the court, to the same extent in a criminal case as in any other, and a trial judge can properly so instruct.</p> <p>2. It is not error for the court in a murder ease to say to the jury “you are to take the law from the court as the proper source of information.”</p> <p>Criminal law — Murder—Dying declarations — Evidence — Excerpts from charge — Charge as a whole — Bequests for further instructions.</p> <p>3. An instruction cannot properly be separated into parts and these treated piecemeal, on appeal, but it must be viewed as a whole with all its modifying and amplifying portions.</p> <p>4. The court cannot be convicted of error for saying, in referring to a dying declaration, “the Commonwealth offers in evidence the statement of this woman before her death,” where other portions of the charge make it clear that the court did not assume the fact of the declarations having been made.</p> <p>5. Where a dying declaration as given is not specifically attacked, it is not material that a trial judge did not call the jury’s attention to a disagreement of the Commonwealth’s witnesses as to whether the district attorney took notes of deceased’s dying declarations at her bedside or after leaving it.</p> <p>6. As a general rule in a murder case, where, at the conclusion of the charge, the court asks counsel if they desire further instructions, and no further request is made, questions not then raised will not be considered on appeal.</p> <p>Criminal law — Murder—Insanity—Killing with deadly weapon.</p> <p>7. On a trial for murder, where the only defense is insanity, the court cannot be convicted of error in charging that if the jury believe the defendant shot deceased with a deadly weapon intentionally then he is guilty of “either first degree murder, second degree or voluntary manslaughter.,......unless you accept the defense interposed h