Commonwealth v. Loomis

Citations

• 267 Pa. 438
• 110 A. 257
• 1920 Pa. LEXIS 886

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Murder—Accomplice — Evidence — Witnesses— Charge — Undue weight io certain witness — Interest—Alibi—When case for court and when for jury.</p> <p>1. A person is not an accomplice merely because he was present at the commission of a crime and failed thereafter to report it.</p> <p>2. Where a witness admits being present at the time a murder is committed, but testifies that he was only a terrified onlooker, a charge is erroneous which deals only with the weight to be given to the testimony of an accomplice.</p> <p>3. Under such circumstances if he was an accomplice his testimony in this respect is untrue, and the jury should be told that, while his credibility is for them, they are at liberty to disregard it entirely if they believe he testified falsely to this material fact.</p> <p>4. In a murder case the trial judge should be careful not to give or seem to give too great weight to the testimony of any witness or class of witness.</p> <p>5. It is error to charge the jury in a murder case that the test in deciding as to the truthfulness of defendant’s evidence, is in determining whether or not he impressed them as a shifty, evasive and slick witnesses.</p> <p>6. In a murder case the jury should not be told that witnesses for the defense might be found interested because they were assisting counsel for defendant at the trial, or that they might find corruption or carelessness from that fact.</p> <p>7. It is for the jury to say whether or not a defendant is guilty of the crime with which he is charged, even though it is difficult to understand bow it could have been committed as narrated by tbe witnesses, unless tbe proof of tbe alleged exculpatory circumstances is so clear as to require tbe court to rule tbereon as a matter of law.</p>