Commonwealth v. Wasson

Citations

• 42 Pa. Super. 38
• 1910 Pa. Super. LEXIS 289

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Conspiracy—Participation in conspiracy.</p> <p>1. While it requires more than proof of mere passive cognizance of a crime on the part of a defendant to sustain a charge of conspiracy to commit it, yet if a conspiracy has been entered into by other parties without the defendant’s knowledge or participation in it, and he becomes a party to it while it is still in life, he may be convicted.</p> <p>Criminal law — Bribery—Councilmen—Impossibility of the crime to be committed.</p> <p>2- If three councilmen of a city and two outsiders confederate to procure the passage of ordinances through councils by the gift or promise of bribes to enough members for that purpose, the bribe money to be furnished by the two outsiders to one of the three councilmen and to be distributed by him among those voting for the ordinances, the substantive crime of conspiracy is committed by the three councilmen, although the two outsiders secretly intend not to furnish the bribe money but to frustrate the full execution of the conspiracy.</p> <p>Criminal law — Bribery—Councilmen—Conspiracy.</p> <p>3. Gouncilmen of a city who have entered into a conspiracy to accept bribes for passing certain ordinances, cannot defend against the charge of conspiracy on the ground that they had been lured into the act by detectives proposing to them a scheme which the detectives had no intention or ability to carry out.</p> <p>4. In considering the question of public policy the clear distinction, founded on principle as well as authority, is to be observed between measures used to entrap a person into crime in order, by making him a criminal, to aid the instigator in the accomplishment of some corrupt private purpose of his own, and artifice used to detect persons suspected of being engaged in criminal practices, particularly if such criminal practices vitally affect the public welfare rather than in-dividuals.</p> <p>Criminal law — Conspiracy—Coconspirators—Detectives—Evidence.</p> <p>5. Where d