Commonwealth v. Johnson

Citations

• 213 Pa. 432
• 62 A. 1064
• 1906 Pa. LEXIS 500

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Murder—Summoning jurors — Evidence.</p> <p>A conviction of murder will not be set aside because the sheriff in the notice summoning jurors failed to state that they were to serve in the court of Oyer and Terminer.</p> <p>In a murder trial facts which have been learned by competent witnesses are not to be excluded because the witnesses may have been put on the track of them by information coming incidentally or otherwise from the prisoner or his wife. The admission of such facts is not permitting the wife to testify against the prisoner, or compelling the latter to testify against himself.</p> <p>An admission not competent as a confession is admissible when its truth is proved by the revelation of the fact by search.</p> <p>Criminal law — Murder—Self-defense.</p> <p>Where a prisoner charged with murder, and the deceased, both had a right to be in the house where the killing occurred, the ordinary rules as to self-defense are alone applicable. Rights of a householder against a violent intruder have no relevancy.</p> <p>To justify killing in self-defense the prisoner must have reasonably believed that he had no other means of escape from death, pr great bodily harm.</p>