Tiffany v. Commonwealth

Citations

• 121 Pa. 165
• 15 A. 462
• 1888 Pa. LEXIS 658

Syllabus

<p>1. Malice is an essential ingredient of murder, either of the first or second degree, and while its existence may be presumed from certain proved or admitted facts, the presumption is not necessarily conclusive; it is not a presumption juris et de jure, but a rebuttable presumption.</p> <p>2. The presumption from an unlawful killing that it is murder, may bo rebutted or so far weakened by evidence of other facts accompanying the act, as to create in connection with the legal presumption of innocence, a reasonable, substantial doubt as to the guilt of the accused and entitle Mm to an acquittal or to a reduction of the grade from murder to manslaughter.</p> <p>8. In criminal cases, the burden of proof never shifts but rests on the prosecution throughout, so that, in all cases, conviction can only be had after the jury have been convinced of the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt; hence, if from any, or from all the evidence taken together, a reasonable doubt of guilt is raised, there should be an acquittal.</p> <p>4. When, therefore, on a trial for murder there was evidence tending to show that an attack was made upon defendant, so violent as to warrant him in believing that he was in danger of great bodily harm or loss of life unless he used a pistol in self-defence, it was error to refuse to charge that if that evidence raised a reasonable doubt of the crime of murder in the second degree, it would operate to acquit of it.</p> <p>5. It was also error, in such case, to charge that “if the facts and circumstances are in evidence, no matter by whom produced, which make the extenuation which reduces [the grade of the crime], they have the effect to reduce it, but the facts and circumstances must be more than sufficient to raise a reasonable doubt.”</p> <p>6. While one has the right to order a trespasser from his premises, he has no right to follow him up until an attack is made upon himself so fierce as to put him to the necessity of taking the life of the t