Commonwealth v. Mallini

Citations

• 214 Pa. 50
• 63 A. 414
• 1906 Pa. LEXIS 596

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Murder—Information—Indictment.</p> <p>Where an indictment for murder has been regularly found after a hearing before a justice, it is too late at the trial to move to quash the indictment for the insufficiency of the information.</p> <p>An information by a county detective officer before a justice of the peace to the effect that “being duly sworn” he “deposes and says that the prisoner did kill and murder the deceased by stabbing him in the body with a knife. On information received,” is not open to the charge of insufficiency because it does not show probable cause, and because it fails to set forth the deponent’s belief that the charge was true.</p> <p>Criminal law — Murder—Jury—Deputy sheriff — Coroner.</p> <p>Where the sheriff of a county is absent from the county in foreign parts, the coroner may under the common law, and under the Act of April 14, 1834, sec. 131, P. L. 333, perform the sheriff’s duties in regard to selecting, summoning and returning jurors. The Act of May 24, 1887, P. L. 185, authorizing the appointment by the sheriff of the chief deputy, does not, it seems, repeal the earlier act,-or change the ancient system. Whether this is the case or not, where no chief deputy has been appointed under the act of 1887, the coroner must perform the duties.</p>