Commonwealth v. Ieradi

Citations

• 216 Pa. 87
• 64 A. 889
• 1906 Pa. LEXIS 566

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Murder—Evidence—Witness—Charge of court.</p> <p>On the trial of an indictment for murder it is reversible error for the court to instruct the jury that, if they found one of the witnesses had sworn falsely, then “such witness is not to be believed in any respect, and you have to disregard his testimony.”</p> <p>The maxim falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, has modernly been relaxed and restricted in its application. The rule is, that if a witness wilfully and corruptly swears falsely to any material fact in a case, the jury are at liberty to disregard the whole of his testimony. But the correct principle goes no farther than to say that the jury may disregard the testimony, not that they must disregard it.</p>