Commonwealth v. Comporto

Citations

• 233 Pa. 10
• 81 A. 906
• 1911 Pa. LEXIS 456

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Murder—Confession—Evidence.</p> <p>1. On the trial of an indictment for murder a confession of the prisoner is propérly admitted in evidence where such confession fairly justifies an inference that the prisoner and another man were jointly concerned in the perpetration of a robbery, and that although the killing was done by the other man inside of a building while the defendant was outside, the defendant had knowledge beforehand of the plan.</p> <p>2. Where a confession is offered in evidence, and the court strikes out, at the request of the defendant, a portion of it which relates to the defendant’s criminal record, the latter cannot then demand that the whole of the confession should be stricken out on the ground that when a confession is offered it must go in as a whole. In such a case the defendant cannot complain on appeal of the action of the court in excluding, at his own instance, a portion of the confession.</p> <p>3. On the trial of an indictment for murder a verdict of guilty of murder of the first degree will be sustained where the evidence tends to show that the defendant and a confederate went to a house in the nighttime for the purpose of robbery, and that according to the defendant’s confession the confederate went inside and did the killing, while the defendant remained on the outside, although the proof of the commonwealth, apart from the confession, did not indicate which of the two did the killing.</p>