Commonwealth v. Johnson

Citations

• 217 Pa. 77
• 66 A. 233
• 1907 Pa. LEXIS 659

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Murder—Confession.</p> <p>To exclude a voluntary confession of guilt some inducement must bo held out to prompt to falsehood, and of this the trial court must be the judge in the first instance, and its ruling will be set aside only for manifest error.</p> <p>On the trial of an indictment for murder it appeared that when the prisoner was in jail he sent for an acquaintance to become his bail. The latter refused. The acquaintance testified at the trial that when the prisoner started to tell about the killing he was told that he was not obliged to say anything unless he desired to do so, and that whatever he said might be used against him. After this caution he made a confession without any inducement or hope having been held, out to him. Held, that the confession was properly admitted in evidence.</p> <p>Criminal law — Murder—Principal—Accessory.</p> <p>A person may be convicted of murder of the first degree where it appears that he entered into a plot with another by which the latter was to do the killing, while he himself should wait some little distance from the house for about three-quarters of an hour to allow the actual murderer to escape, and then set fire to the house to conceal the crime, and that this plot was carried out.</p>