Commonwealth v. Watson

Citations

• 233 Pa. 295
• 82 A. 255
• 1912 Pa. LEXIS 819

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Murder—Self-defense—Charge of court.</p> <p>On the trial of an indictment for murder where the evidence shows that the deceased was stabbed with a knife by the prisoner during á fight, and the prisoner claims that it was done in self-defense and offers evidence which, if believed, would justify a finding that he used the knife only when under a reasonable apprehension of loss of life or great bodily harm so imminent at the moment that he was justified in believing that what he did was necessary to save himself, the prisoner is entitled to adequate instructions on the law relating to self-defense, free from any expression on the part of the trial judge leading the jury to believe that they ought to accept as an undisputed fact that death had resulted from a quarrel which the prisoner could or should have avoided.</p>