Commonwealth v. Staush

Citations

• 256 Pa. 620
• 101 A. 72
• 1917 Pa. LEXIS 672

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Murder—Plea of guilty — Fixing of degree by court — Decision — Participation by judge who did not hear -witnesses — Sentence of death — New trial — Act of March SI, 1860, P. L. 882, Sec, Ik.</p> <p>1. The provision of Section 74 of the Act of March 31, 1860, P. L. 382, that where a defendant pleads guilty to an indictment for murder the court shall “proceed, by examination of witnesses, to determine the degree of the crime and give sentence accordingly,” must be strictly construed and under it the examination of witnesses by the court means seeing and hearing them; a mere reading of their testimony by a judge or judges who neither saw nor heard them is not a compliance with the act.</p> <p>2. Where a defendant pleads guilty to an indictment for murder every member of a court passing upon the degree of guilt must see and hear the witnesses upon whose testimony the question is to be determined, and where three judges heard the testimony and thereafter the president judge, who was not present during the examination of witnesses, read the evidence, joined the other judges in their deliberation, subsequently wrote the opinion of the court fixing the crime as murder of the first degree, and pronounced sentence of death, the judgment was reversed and a procedendo awarded with leave to the prisoner to renew in the court below a motion for leave to withdraw his plea of guilty.</p>