Commonwealth v. Nailor

Citations

• 29 Pa. Super. 271
• 1905 Pa. Super. LEXIS 310

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Abortion—Evidence.</p> <p>On the trial of an indictment for abortion, a conviction cannot be sustained where there was no evidence from which the jury could have found that the defendant at the time of the alleged offense, knew or believed that the woman, on whom the instrument is alleged to have been used, was then pregnant, or that the defendant understood or supposed that the instrument was used for the purpose of producing a miscarriage.</p> <p>Criminal law — Indictment—Time.</p> <p>No conviction can be sustained on an indictment found more than five months prior to the date on which the indictment charges that the offense was committed.</p> <p>In an indictment, some specific date must be stated as that on which the offense was committed. It is not necessary, however, to prove the time as laid, except when time enters into the nature of the offense, or the date is to be proved by matter of record, as when perjury is charged to have been committed in a proceeding in a court of record. It is sufficient that the date laid is one on which the offense might have been committed, and that the offense, if committed on such date, is by law punishable at the time of finding the indictment. Thus the date laid must be prior to the day on which the indictment is found; it must be within the period fixed by the statute of limitations for the finding of the indictment; and, in the case of a statutory offense, it must be subsequent to the enactment of the statute. If the time laid is uncertain or impossible, or is laid on different days when the offense is a single act, or is subsequent to the finding of the indictment, or anterior to the statute creating the offense, or makes the indictment inconsistent with itself, it is a fatal objection even after verdict.</p>