Commonwealth v. DeMasi

Citations

• 234 Pa. 570
• 83 A. 430
• 1912 Pa. LEXIS 687

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Murder—Robbery—Evidence.</p> <p>1. Where a prisoner is convicted of murder committed in the perpetration of a robbery, the crime is fixed as that of murder of the first degree, and the duty imposed upon the appellate court by the Act of February 15, 1870, P. L. 15, is limited to ascertaining whether there was competent evidence at the trial, which if believed by the jury, would sustain a verdict of guilty.</p> <p>Criminal law — Murder—Testimony of accomplice.</p> <p>2. There is no rule of law in Pennsylvania that forbids a conviction of murder on the uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice.</p> <p>Criminal law — Evidence—Privilege of witness — Murder.</p> <p>3. The right of a witness to refuse to testify on the ground that his testimony may incriminate him, is a right personal to himself alone. The person against whom the witness is called has no rights in relation to the matter. This rule applies to an accomplice who is willing to testify against the prisoner on the trial of an indictment for murder, and to whom the prisoner objects as a witness.</p> <p>Criminal law- — Murder—Evidence.</p> <p>4. Where a prisoner on trial for murder has assigned in his testimony in chief a reason for leaving the place of the killing on the morning following the occurrence, he may be questioned on cross examination in relation to a letter which he had written to a relative in which there were statements inconsistent with the reason he had assigned for leaving the city; and this is the case although the person to whom he had dictated the letter had not followed his directions strictly, if it appears that the prisoner knew what the letter contained, and had adopted it as written, and made it his own.</p>