Commonwealth v. Wertheimer

Citations

• 23 Pa. Super. 192
• 1903 Pa. Super. LEXIS 36

Syllabus

<p>Trial — Charge—Reviewing testimony — Discretion of court.</p> <p>The extent to which the trial judge ought to go in reviewing, analyzing and commenting on testimony depends very largely upon the circumstances of the case, and to some extent upon the line of argument pursued by counsel in addressing a jury. Generally it must be left to his sound discretion. It is only in exceptional cases, as, for example, where it plainly appears that the charge is so inadequate in this regard as to be misleading, or where by indirection it draws the attention of the jury from material issues or evidence, or from matters entering as necessary elements into the decision of the question at issue, or where its tendency as a whole is to unduly magnify the importance of the proofs introduced by one party and to belittle those introduced by the other party, that the court will be reversed upon a general exception to the inadequacy of the charge.</p>