Commonwealth v. Florentino

Citations

• 266 Pa. 261
• 109 A. 679
• 1920 Pa. LEXIS 546

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Murder—Evidence—Threat to hill — Statement Toy accused that he had served time in prison — Refusal to strike out — Withdrawing juror — Evidence of former conviction — Evidence of intention — Cross-examination.</p> <p>1. Where a witness for the Commonwealth in a murder trial testifies that, shortly before the shooting, when the witness was trying to dissuade the accused from carrying out his threat, the accused said, “I am going to kill him. I served six month in prison,” the refusal of the trial judge to strike out the last sentence and to withdraw a juror because of alleged improper examination, is not error, inasmuch as it was but part of the narrative of what the accused had said to the witness, and was in no sense testimony offered by the Commonwealth to show that he had been formerly convicted of crime. His statement that he had served six months in prison immediately following his threat to kill, was evidence of a deliberate intention to do so without regard to consequences.</p> <p>2. In such a case, where a witness for the defense testified as to what the accused had said before the commission of the offense, but made no reference to. his admission that he had been in prison, the mere fact that the district attorney, on cross-examination, asked the witness to repeat everything the prisoner had said, and asked what he had said about being in prison, did not call for the withdrawal of a juror and the continuance of the case, inasmuch as it was quite proper to ask the witness to repeat everything the prisoner had said.</p>