Commonwealth v. Palma

Citations

• 268 Pa. 434
• 112 A. 26
• 1920 Pa. LEXIS 712

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Murder — Evidence—Declarations—Bes gestee — Statement on leaving home.</p> <p>1. On. the trial of an indictment for murder, declarations made by deceased to his wife when leaving home about an hour previous to the time he met his death, to the effect that he intended to meet defendant are admissible as part of the rest gestee.</p> <p>2. If made at a time previous to leaving, the declaration amounts merely to a statement of a purpose to do a future act and is not competent as explanatory of the act itself, inasmuch as the person in the meantime may have changed his purpose.</p> <p>Criminal law — Murder—Charge—Context—Inadequacy of charge —Failure to ash for instructions — Appeal.</p> <p>3. In a murder trial, where the evidence for the Commonwealth is circumstantial and voluminous, and that of the prisoner, setting up an alibi, is simple in character and brief, the charge will not be reversed on appeal as inadequate on the ground that it referred fully to the Commonwealth’s evidence and insufficiently to that of defendant, where the court gave brief but correct and sufficient instructions as to the alibi, and at the close asked if any matter had been omitted, to which no response was made.</p> <p>4. A portion of a charge cannot be alleged as error on the ground that it gave the jury a certain impression, where a careful reading of the language immediately preceding shows that the statement was not susceptible of the construction for which the prisoner contended.</p> <p>Criminal law — Murder—Witness under indictment — Credibility —Charge.</p> <p>5. In a murder case, where a witness for the Commonwealth is alleged to have been indicted as an accessory for the purpose of attacking his credibility, it is not reversible error for the trial judge, if it developed from the testimony that there was nothing to implicate the witness, to refer to this fact, in view of the attack on his credibility, by showing the pending indictment.</p>