Commonwealth v. Hollister

Citations

• 157 Pa. 13
• 27 A. 386
• 1893 Pa. LEXIS 1395

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Larceny—Principal and accessories.</p> <p>A person who plans a robbery, the execution of which is intrusted to others, may, if the robbery has been successfully accomplished, be convicted of larceny.</p> <p>The defendant planned a robbery, the execution of which was intrusted to three other men. One of the confederates informed the police, and it was arranged that he should co-operate with the others in Hie commission of the crime and report to the police. The paymaster who was to be robbed was informed of the plot, and consented not to resist tiie robbers. The three confederates went to the pay-office, covered the paymaster with a revolver, and ordered him to hold up his hands. The informer and one of the other confederates then seized, bound, blindfolded and gagged him. They then took the money from the office, and as they were leaving they were surrounded by the police and arrested. Held that defendant could be convicted of lai'ceny.</p> <p>Evidence— Witness — Informer.</p> <p>A person who joins others in the commission of a crime for the purpose of exposing it, and bringing criminals to punishment, and honestly carries out that design, is not an accessory before the fact, although he may have encouraged and counseled parties who were about to commit crime, if in doing so he intended that they should be discovered and punished; and liis testimony, therefore, is not to be treated as that of an infamous witness.</p>