Commonwealth v. Taylor

Citations

• 129 Pa. 534
• 18 A. 558
• 1889 Pa. LEXIS 979

Syllabus

<p>1. The test of the competency of a juror in a capital case is his ability to render a verdict upon the evidence, and upon the evidence alone, uninfluenced by any opinion which he may have previously formed from newspaper or other reports of the crime: Rizzolo v. Commonwealth, 126 Pa. 54.</p> <p>2. An opinion as to the guilt or innocence of a defendant, not thus controlling, and formed by a juror from reading fragmentary newspaper reports of the former trial of a co-defendant upon the same indictment, will not create a disqualification of the juror: Allison v. Commonwealth, 99 Pa. 32, distinguished.</p> <p>3. Inculpatory statements or admissions of the defendant are not inadmissible because the witness offered to prove them did not hear and therefore could not give the whole of the conversation during which they occurred, if the statements or admissions which he did hear are complete in themselves.</p> <p>4. A remark made by the district attorney, during the discussion of the admissibility of testimony as to such statements or admissions by the defendant, that “commonwealth would not compel the defendant here to state the whole of that conversation,” is not ground for reversal.</p>