Commonwealth v. Fisher

Citations

• 226 Pa. 189
• 75 A. 204
• 1910 Pa. LEXIS 736

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Murder—Misconduct of juror — “Two term rule.”</p> <p>1. A judgment on a verdict of guilty on a murder trial will be set aside where it appears that the jury slept in a hotel, where they walked and lounged and mingled with the other guests, that they went separately with tipstaves to drinking saloons, to drug stores and to barber shops, that some of them drank in the saloons, and that they were furnished with beer and whisky which they drank in their room in the hotel.</p> <p>2. It is the duty of the court to see that the jury, after they are charged with the prisoner, are not exposed to contact or do not communicate with outsiders either during the progress of the trial or after they have returned to their room to deliberate and make up their verdict; and it is also the duty of the court not to permit the jury to receive and use intoxicating liquors while they have the prisoner in charge.</p> <p>3. It seems that the right of a prisoner to be discharged under the “two term rule,” is essentially a habeas corpus proceeding under sec. 54 of the Act of March 31,1860, P. L. 427, which is a re-enactment of the Act of February 18, 1785, 2 Sm. L. 275, sec. 3. This proceeding is separate and distinct from the trial of the cause and is not reviewable on an appeal from a conviction at the trial.</p>