36 A.2d 249 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1944
The relator pleaded guilty to a "district attorney's bill", prepared under the Act of April 15, 1907, P.L. 62, as amended by Act of June 15, 1939, P.L. 400, charging him with the larceny of an automobile two years and six months prior thereto. He seeks in this proceeding to be discharged from the sentence of imprisonment imposed under said plea on the ground that he was sentenced without indictment found, on a plea entered more than two years after the commission of the crime: Section 77 of the Act of March 31, 1860, P.L. 427, as amended by Act of April 6, 1939, P.L. 17.
Section 77 of the Criminal Procedure Act aforesaid contains a proviso that the limitation of two years, within which a bill of indictment shall be brought or exhibited, shall not apply if the defendant shall not have been an "inhabitant of this state or usual resident therein during the said respective terms for which he shall be subject and liable to prosecution as aforesaid", in which event, "such indictment shall or may be brought or exhibited against such person at any period within a similar space of time during which he shall *398 be an inhabitant of, or usually resident within this state."
It is well settled that it is not essential to aver in an indictment, found more than two years after the perpetration of such an offense, the facts relied upon to bring the case within the terms of the proviso to section 77 aforesaid: Blackman v.Com.,
If the defendant may enter a valid plea of guilty to anindictment found more than two years after the commission of the offense, there is no substantial reason why, if he committed the offense, he may not plead guilty to a "district attorney's bill", without indictment found, under like circumstances.
The rule to show cause why a writ of habeas corpus should not issue is discharged and the petition is denied. *399