Commonwealth v. Lapriesta

Citations

• 257 Pa. 286
• 101 A. 637
• 1917 Pa. LEXIS 725

Syllabus

<p>Murder — Charge—Answers to points — Self--defense.</p> <p>1. At the trial of an indictment for murder, the fact that the court mistakenly charged the jury that the indictment contained a count for manslaughter was - not reversible error, where the defendant could have been found guilty of that offense on the count charging murder, and where the trial judge correctly defined manslaughter in his instructions to the jury.</p> <p>2. In such case, where the defendant admitted the killing, but ' alleged that it was in self-defense, the court committed no error in affirming a point relating' to self-defense, with the qualification “Killing is the last resort, and if there were any other way it was the duty of the defendant to take that way, but if there were no other way, then he would be justified, even if it resulted in the killing,” and in affirming a similar point with the qualification “if you find from the evidence that there was no other way of resisting and the killing came from the resisting.”</p>