Commonwealth v. Zec

Citations

• 262 Pa. 251
• 105 A. 279
• 1918 Pa. LEXIS 634

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Murder—Trials—Verdicts—Motion for continuance — Refusal—Defenses—Self-defense—Shooting to scare — Deadly weapon — Presumption—Act of March SI, 1860, Sec. 54, P. L. 4®1-</p> <p>1. Where a jury has rendered a verdict of “guilty of murder in the first degree, but recommend the mercy of the court,” the latter clause is surplusage and does not vitiate the verdict; so far as relates to the law of the case it is without effect.</p> <p>2. In a homicide case the refusal of a continuance moved for because of the alleged inability of defendant to procure witnesses did not appear to have harmed defendant where, after the trial, counsel searched for additional witnesses for nine months and found but one witness, who only alleged that she had seen a quarrel between defendant and deceased prior to the killing and at a different place therefrom, who was not present at the killing, and whose other testimony would be incompetent, particularly where it appeared that such witness was known to defendant from the time of the homicide and no reason was given why she was not produced at the trial.</p> <p>3. Where in such ease, two terms elapsed before the trial of the defendant, the fact that he was not discharged at the expiration of the second term, as requested by him, was not reversible error, where the postponement of the trial was granted at his application, because of the fact that he was confined to a hospital recovering from the amputation of his leg.</p> <p>■ 4. The two-term rule never applies where the delay in reaching trial is at the application of the defendant or results from his disability, misconduct or assent. Section 54 of the Act of March 31, 1860, is a habeas corpus act to relieve a defendant from unjust imprisonment and not to shield him from just punishment.</p> <p>5. It is not reversible error in a trial for murder for the trial judge to refuse to order the district attorney to call all the witnesses who were present at the commission of the homici