Commonwealth v. Washington

Citations

• 202 Pa. 148
• 51 A. 759
• 1902 Pa. LEXIS 483

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Murder—Charge of court.</p> <p>In a murder case the court charged as follows: “In this case there is no evidence that the offense was committed by means of poison or lying in wait, or in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of any arson, rape or burglary, and we have, therefore, only to deal with murder described in the act of assembly as wilful, deliberate and premeditated, or which shall be committed in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of robbery. Unless, therefore, the offense was committed in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of robbery, — and the district attorney says that he does not ask you to say that this murder was committed in the attempted perpetration of a robbery, — therefore to constitute murder in the first degree in this case the act must have been done voluntarily.” Held, that the trial judge could not be charged with leaving it to the jury to say whether the murder had been committed in the perpetration of a robbery because he did not affirmatively tell them that there was no evidence of the commission of that offense.</p> <p>Criminal law — Murder—Insanity—Charge of court.</p> <p>On tire trial of an indictment for murder it is not error to charge as follows : “ The la,w in the state of Pennsylvania is that when the killing is admitted or proven, and insanity or the want of legal responsibility is alleged as an excuse, it is the duty of the defendant to satisfy the jury that insanity actually existed at the time of-the act.”</p> <p>Criminal law — Murder—Charge of court — Statement as to testimony.</p> <p>Assignments of error to portions of charge, alleged to contain misstatements as to testimony, cannot be sustained where it appears from the rest of the charge that such portions gave simply the judge’s recollection of what had been testified to, which did not so materially vary from the testimony as to harm the prisoner, and where it also appears that the judge had cautioned the jury that they themselves