Commonwealth v. Cunningham

Citations

• 232 Pa. 609
• 81 A. 711
• 1911 Pa. LEXIS 772

Syllabus

<p>Murder — Charge—Expression of court’s opinion in the evidence-r-Leaving jury free to act — ■Practice, O. T.</p> <p>1. It is the undoubted right of a judge and often it is his duty to express to the jury his opinion of the weight and the effect of the evidence. The only limitation of the right is that there must be sufficient ground for his statement and that it is not made as a binding direction, but leaves the jury free to act.</p> <p>2. In a trial upon an indictment for murder the case will not be remanded for new trial after a verdict of guilty of murder of the first degree because of an expression of the court’s opinion, possibly at variance with the aspect of the testimony most favorable to the defendant, in a charge which clearly and accurately defined the different degrees of murder, manslaughter and the right of self-defense, and which affirmed without qualification the defendant’s points covering every feature of the ease favorable to him, where the opinion expressed by the court is warranted by the defendant’s ovim account of the occur.rence, and because of the abundant caution repeated in the charge the jurors must have understood that they were entirely free to form their own judgment.</p>