Commonwealth v. Exler

Citations

• 243 Pa. 155
• 89 A. 968
• 1914 Pa. LEXIS 590

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Murder—Rape—Statutory rape — Act of March 81,1860, Secs. 74, 91, P. L. 882 — Act of May 19, 1887, P. L. 128.. ■</p> <p>. 1. It is only by the common law that murder is defined; the statute law attempts no definition of this crime but only prescribes a punishment for its commission and the definition of murder under the several statutes is to be taken in the common law sense..</p> <p>2. The Act of March 31, 1860, Sec. 91, P. L. 382, defining rape and providing the penalty for its commission involved no depar-, ture from the common law meaning of rape, which always and everywhere made want of consent on the part of the female the criterion and not only the criterion, but the essential element without which there could be no such crime. No conviction for felonious rape upon a child over the age of ten years could be had under the act, except as the evidence showed want of consent.</p> <p>3. The Act of May 19, 1887, P. L. 128, denouncing sexual intercourse with a female above the age of ten years and under sixteen years with or without her consent as felonious rape, makes that a felonious rape which before was not rape.</p> <p>4. The Act of March 31, 1860, Sec. 74, defining a homicide when committed in the perpetration of or attempt to perpetrate a rape as murder of the first degree did not create a new offense but merely prescribed the penalty for an' offense already existing.</p> <p>Statutes — Penal statutes — Statutory rape — Act of May 19, 1887, P. L. 128 — Construction—Constructive crime — Murder.</p> <p>5. When a criminal statute calls for construction, it is not the construction that is supported by the greater reason that is to prevail, but that one which, if reasonable, operates in favor of life and liberty. All doubts concerning the interpretation, of a penal statute are to be resolved in favor of the accused.</p> <p>6. When an offense is created by statute and the same statute provides a penalty or mode of punishment, only that which the sta