Commonwealth v. Frucci

Citations

• 216 Pa. 84
• 64 A. 879
• 1906 Pa. LEXIS 565

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Murder—Degree of guilt — Question for jury.</p> <p>When in a murder trial the question of guilt goes to the jury, the question of the degree goes with it, and the degree is exclusively for them under proper instructions, in which the court may express its own views as to the effect of the evidence, if in such expression there is no interference with the exclusive right and duty of the jury to pass upon the degree of guilt.</p> <p>Where in a murder trial the judge repeats to the jury the words of the seventy-fourth section of the Act of March 31, 1860, P. L. 382, defining the crime of murder of the first degree, it is reversible error for the court to say “you will have to do in this case with that kind of murder stated in the statute as wilful, déliberate and premeditated murder.” Such language assumes that the prisoner if guilty, is guilty of murder of the first degree, and takes from the jury the right to fix the degree.</p>