Commonwealth v. Storey

Citations

• 49 Pa. Super. 282
• 1912 Pa. Super. LEXIS 321

Syllabus

<p>Appeals — Assignments of error — Rulings on evidence — Exceptions— Act of May 11,1911, P. L. 279.</p> <p>1. Assignments of error to the admission or rejection of offers of evidence not supported by exceptions, will not be considered.</p> <p>Libel — Criminal law — Public officers — Candidates—Evidence—Admissions.</p> <p>2. On the trial of an indictment for libel, where it appears that both the prosecutor and the defendant were candidates for judge evidence of the defendant’s admission of the fact that he was a candidate is competent.</p> <p>3. In such a case it is proper to refuse to permit the defendant to show by the prosecutor who was district attorney of the county that certain indictments had been nolle pressed, inasmuch as the record is the best evidence of such a fact.</p> <p>4. On the trial of an indictment for libel it appeared that a part of the article alleged to be libelous charged that the district attorney, the prosecutor, had neglected or refused to perform his official duty in not prosecuting for bribery a county detective who was subordinate to him. The defendant offered to prove that the mayor had made investigation of the bribery charges against the detective, had called the witnesses thereof to his office, that the district attorney came to the mayor’s office, saw and heard the witnesses, but refused to make information against the county detective; that the mayor himself made the complaint, and that these facts were communicated to the defendant; Objection was made that a part of the offer was inadmissible, and when counsel for the commonwealth was asked to state which part, he replied that it was a part of the offer intended to show “the result of the investigation by the mayor of the charges” against the detective. The court then sustained objection to the whole offer. Held, (1) that the portion of the offer objected to was not irrelevant inasmuch as it was to prove what the mayor did and not merely what he believed; and (2) because the offe