Commonwealth v. Tassone

Citations

• 246 Pa. 543
• 92 A. 713
• 1914 Pa. LEXIS 551

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Criminal procedure — Act of March SI, 1860, P. L. 427, Sections 11,12, IS — Amendments.</p> <p>1. A misstatement of the date of the commission of a crime in an indictment is a mere formal defect if it be shown on the trial that the offense charged was committed.</p> <p>2. Sections 11, 12 and 13 of the Criminal Code of March 31, 1860, P. L. 427, which relate to the amendment of indictments, permit an indictment, which erroneously alleges the date of the offense, to be amended, after a verdict of “guilty” has been rendered, so as to allege the true date of the offense.</p> <p>Constitution of Pennsylvania, Article III, Section 6 — Revival and amendment of laws — Act of June 19, 1918, P. L. 528 — Death penalty — Electrocution—Valid statute.</p> <p>3. The Act of June 19, 1913, P. L. 528, providing that the death penalty shall be inflicted by means of electricity, is complete in itself and does not require the re-enactment of any other statute to’ give it effect. It does not therefore violate Article in, Section 6, of the Constitution of Pennsylvania, which provides in effect that so much of an act as is revived, amended, extended or conferred, shall be re-enacted and published at length.</p> <p>4. Where an indictment for murder charged the offense as having been committed on October 31,1914, which was six months after the date of trial, and at the trial the defendant denied that he shot deceased, but said that deceased was shot by another person, the testimony could only have applied to a past, and not to a future time, and after a verdict of guilty of murder of the first degree was rendered, the court made no error in directing the indictment to be amended so as properly to allege the date of the erime; and in imposing sentence of death by electrocution, under the Act of June 19, 1913, P. L. 528. .</p>