Commonwealth v. Potts

Citations

• 241 Pa. 325
• 88 A. 483
• 1913 Pa. LEXIS 783

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Murder—New trial — Jury—Mistake as to juror —Knowledge of mistake.</p> <p>Judgment of death entered upon a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree should not be reversed where the sole error alleged is the court’s action in refusing to grant a new trial, upon the discovery some time after the verdict had been rendered that when a certain juror’s name was called, another man with a different first name responded and was sworn, where it clearly appeared that the latter did not intentionally impersonate another, but allowed himself to be accepted as a juror under the honest belief that he was the juror intended to be called, that he was in fact the man whose name the jury commissioner intended to put in the wheel; that he was accurately described as to residence, occupation, middle letter and last name, the only misdescription, resulting from a clerical error, being as to his first name; that there was no resident of the town known by the name as first called; and that the answers of the witness when examined on his voir dire were sufficient to put counsel for the prisoner on notice of these facts.</p>