Commonwealth v. Shaffer

Citations

• 178 Pa. 409
• 35 A. 924
• 1896 Pa. LEXIS 1184

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Murder—Employment of counsel to assist district attorney.</p> <p>On the trial of an indictment for murder it is not improper for the court to permit the district attorney to call to his assistance other counsel, where the application is based on the ground that the ends of justice required such assistance; that the district attorney had only recently come into office; that it was of importance that he should be a witness in the case; and that the counsel called in had conducted the prosecution of another person charged with the same offense.</p> <p>Criminal law — Murder—Confession.</p> <p>On the trial of an indictment for murder, it appeared that the prisoner had made a confession before his arrest which he repeated and reduced to writing during his confinement, and which he twice testified to in other cases. Before maldng..his confession to the district attorney, and before testifying, he had been warned that what he should say might be used to secure his conviction. At his own trial he denied the truth of his confession. The court submitted the question to the jury whether the confession had been made voluntarily, and if so, whether it was true, and the jury were instructed to reject it altogether if they found that it was not voluntary, or that it was not true. Held, that a conviction based upon the confession would not under such circumstances be reversed by the Supreme Court.</p> <p>On the trial of an indictment for murder a confession of the prisoner to the effect that he had caused an explosion which resulted in the killing was admitted in evidence. Held, that the raising of a doubt by other testimony as to a material part collateral to the main question did not require the rejection of the whole confession and the acquittal of the prisoner.</p> <p>Proof of the truth of the collateral features of a confession increases the probability of its truth as a whole, and tends to establish its main feature; disproof of them lessens this probability,