Commonwealth v. Vitale

Citations

• 250 Pa. 552
• 95 A. 724
• 1915 Pa. LEXIS 987

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Murder—Accessory before the fact — Jurors— Expression of opinion on case before trial — Challenge for cause— Peremptory challenges.</p> <p>1. When the opinion'of a juror upon a vital question in a case involving life in which he is called to serve, has been formed upon evidence heard by him as juror on another trial involving the same question, such opinion becomes so fixed a belief as to disqualify him from serving on the jury in the second trial.</p> <p>2. Where in a murder case, there are grounds for challenging á juror for cause, but the court overrules the challenge for cause,, and the defendant is thereupon compelled to peremptorily challenge1 such juror, so that before twelve jurors are selected defendant exhausts his peremptory challenges, he is unlawfully deprived of a valuable right; a conviction in such case is illegal,- and on appeal the judgment will be reversed.</p> <p>3. At the trial of an indictment for murder, it appeared that defendant had been indicted as principal, but was being tried .as accessory before the fact; that at a previous trial-of another accessory the question of the guilt of the principal had been submitted to the jury and decided adversely to the defendant;, three of the jurors who had found such accessory guilty were also called as jurors at the trial of the second accessory and were challenged for cause; the court overruled the challenges for cause and such jurors were peremptorily challenged by the defense. Other jurors were called after the defense had exhausted its peremptory challenges; the jury found a verdict of guilty of murder of the first degree and sentence of death was passed thereon. Held,, that the refusal to sustain the challenges for cause was error and the judgment was reversed with a venire facias de novo.</p>