Commonwealth v. Pezzner

Citations

• 78 Pa. Super. 286
• 1922 Pa. Super. LEXIS 101

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Criminal procedure — Cross-examination of defendant — Previous offenses — Act of March 15, 1911, P. L. 20.</p> <p>In a prosecution for feloniously entering a dwelling and stealing whiskey, it was error to permit the district attorney to ask the defendant whether he had ever been in the bootlegging business, where no evidence had been introduced by the defendant to establish his own good character, where no questions had been asked by defendant, of the witnesses for the prosecution with a view to establishing the defendant’s character, and where he did not testify against any codefendant charged with the same offense. Such a question was in violation of the Act of March 15,1911, P. L. 29.</p> <p>Under the commonly accepted meaning the word “bootlegging” implies the commission of an offense against the State and the United States, and is a term of opprobrium affecting injuriously the character of the person doing it.</p> <p>The Act of March 5, 1911, does not forbid the discrediting of a defendant’s testimony by producing the record of a former conviction.</p>