Commonwealth v. Veley

Citations

• 63 Pa. Super. 489
• 1916 Pa. Super. LEXIS 197

Syllabus

<p>Habeas corpus — Superior Court — Jurisdiction—Pleading—Autrefois acquit.</p> <p>The Superior Court has jurisdiction to grant a writ of habeas corpus in a case where a prisoner claims to he released because he had been previously tried and acquitted of the same charge.</p> <p>Where a person has been charged with the killing of several persons by an act of alleged-criminal negligence, and it appears. that he had been tried and acquitted in one county, by change of venue, on an indictment charging involuntary manslaughter of two of the persons, and that he was arrested subsequently and indicted in another county for involuntary manslaughter of a third person who was killed at the same time as the two persons mentioned in the previous proceeding, he will be entitled to be released on habeas corpus under a plea of autrefois acquit.</p> <p>The protection afforded by the fifth amendment of the Constitution of the United States that a person shall not be twice placed in jeopardy for the same offense, is not only to protect against the peril of a second punishment, but as well against being tried a second time for the same offense.</p>