Commonwealth v. Delamater

Citations

• 145 Pa. 210
• 22 A. 1098
• 1891 Pa. LEXIS 666

Syllabus

<p>1. The Supreme Court has power to issue a writ of certiorari to the Court of Quarter Sessions of any county in the state, for the removal of an indictment pending therein, and all proceedings on such indictment, into the former court, to the end that the same may be tried in some other county: Commonwealth v. Balph, 111 Pa. 365.</p> <p>2. Such power, however, is to be exercised with extreme caution, and only in a clear case. It must be exercised in aid of the administration of justice, not to defeat or needlessly embarrass it; and it must clearly appear that its exercise is necessary, in the particular ease, to secure to the defendant an impartial trial.</p> <p>3. In this instance, the writ being prayed for solely on the ground that it was impossible to secure an impartial jury in the county where the indictment was found, by reason of excitement and prejudice against the defendants, and the Supreme Court not being satisfied that such was the fact, the application was refused: Commonwealth v. Balph, 111 Pa. 365, distinguished.</p> <p>4. The fact that, in a prosecution against a banker for receiving deposits while insolvent, with knowledge of his insolvency, the money was specified in the charge as the property of the county, and hence all the taxpayers of the county were in a sense interested in the case, is not of itself a sufficient reason for removing the indictment, for trial in another county.*</p>