276 Pa. 566 | Pa. | 1923
Opinion by
Appellant, Herbert J. Bryson, was convicted of murder of the second degree, for killing Helen Irene Bryson, or Helen Irene Haines, on April 8, 1922.
The undisputed testimony showed that, for some time prior to the homicide, accused and deceased, though not married, had been living together as man and wife. Early in the evening of the fatal day, defendant, who was a practicing physician, telephoned Dr. Hutchison at Huntingdon, eighteen miles distant, requesting him to come to Cassville and attend Mrs. Bryson, who, he said, had been shot through the abdomen; because of the seriousness of the wound, Dr. Hutchison advised defendant to bring her to the Huntingdon hospital for proper medical attention, which he did.
It further appeared that, shortly after her arrival at the hospital, and a few hours before her death, deceased made a dying declaration in the presence of Dr. Hutchison, the district attorney, and four other witnesses. The
Various parts of the charge are attacked by appellant, the first assigned as error being the court’s statement that, “In this sort of case you are the judges of the law and the facts, the law as well as the facts, but you are to take the law from the court as the proper source of information.” There is nothing in these instructions of which defendant can justly complain. It is the duty of the jury to take the law from the court, to the same extent in a criminal case as in any other, and a trial judge can properly so instruct; this point is now settled in Pennsylvania: Com. v. McManus, 143 Pa. 64, 85; Com. v. Bednorciki, 264 Pa. 124, 129.
The second, third, eighth and eleventh assignments of error may be discussed together. The principal com
On the assignments of error now before us appellant also specifies the failure of the trial judge to call the
At the end of the charge, the court asked if there were any matters upon which counsel desired further instruction, and none of the points thus far discussed were then, or at any other time, called to the trial judge’s attention; this is all that need be said as to them: Com. v. Pava, 268 Pa. 520, 525. On the record presented, we see no error in the judge’s reference to the dying declaration as “undisputed.”
The fourth assignment complains of the following instruction : “If you believe from all the evidence that this defendant shot' deceased, with a deadly weapon, — and a revolver is a deadly weapon in the law, — intentionally, then he is guilty of one of the three grades of felonious homicide, either first degree murder, second degree murder, or voluntary manslaughter. You must believe that beyond a reasonable doubt.” The objection is that under this instruction, without more being said on the subject in hand, defendant was deprived of the benefit of his affirmative defense. We are not convinced, however, that the charge could have had any such effect; as an abstract legal proposition, the court’s statement of the law is correct (Com. v. Drum, 58 Pa. 9, 22; Com. v. Weinberg, 276 Pa. 255), and, immediately following the above-quoted instruction, after devoting a few words to reasonable doubt, the judge, returning to the thought previously expressed, told the jury that, if they believed the Commonwealth’s evidence, defendant should be convicted of one of the three forms of homicide, “unless you accept the defense interposed here for him”; then he
The fifth assignment concerns the. proper meaning of a “reasonable doubt,” which was defined by the court below as “a doubt that would make you hesitate, out in your own everyday life, to believe the existence of anything as a fact, in your ordinary everyday affairs, in a matter of personal concern to yourself.” While it may well be argued that the kind of doubts which may arise in the trivial affairs of everyday life would not be grave enough to be regarded as reasonable in the criminal law, it is equally true, on the other hand, that to require such a doubt as would influence or control only the most important transactions of life, would be too strong a phrase to describe properly the kind of reasonable doubt contemplated by the law: Com. v. Miller, 139 Pa. 77, 94. The language of the court below strikes a mean between these extremes and very properly requires such a doubt as would cause a reasonable man to hesitate in an event of ordinary importance to himself; it is in substantial accord with our decisions on the subject: Com. v. Drum, 58 Pa. 9, 22; Com. v. Conroy, 207 Pa. 212, 213, 216; Com. v. Weinberg, supra.
Next, it is contended, in the sixth assignment, that the trial court belittled the opinions and testimony of certain physicians by stating that, to determine the existence' of insanity, the law applies the “right and wrong” test, “one which men can understand, not the refinement or distinctions of medical science.” Even if these remarks had the disparaging tendency suggested, which we do not believe, their effect was adequately corrected by a subsequent instruction to give “consideration, and careful consideration” to the expert testimony of the doctors on both sides.
One of defendant’s request's for charge reads as follows: “The burden rests on the Commonwealth to satisfy the jury of the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. This burden never shifts, and the legal presumption is that the defendant is innocent.” The court affirmed the point with the qualification that, in a defense of insanity, the burden is on accused to establish that defense by a fair preponderance of the evidence; this answer is assigned, in the tenth specification of error, as one which might make the jury believe the burden of proof had actually shifted from the Commonwealth to the accused. Of course the burden of proving defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt never shifts (Turner v. Com., 86 Pa. 54, 74), but we see nothing in the point and answer before us to give a contrary impression. Taken together, they constitute a literal compliance
The twelfth assignment relates to the refusal of the court to permit counsel for defendant to ask the mother of deceased, on cross-examination, whether she knew a certain Mr. Connelly, whether he kept a boarding house, how long she had boarded with him, whether certain checks were given in payment of board bills. It is now declared that the purpose of the excluded testimony was to prove the bad character of the witness, but it was not so stated at trial, and there is nothing on the record before us to show the propriety of the attempted cross-examination. The witness was put on the stand to prove the age of her daughter, and the fact that deceased was not married to defendant. The questions propounded related neither to her examination in chief nor to her credibility; they were wholly immaterial and irrelevant.
The fourteenth assignment was withdrawn. The thirteenth and fifteenth complain that a witness for defendant was not allowed to repeat certain statements, concerning the mental condition of accused, alleged to have been made by deceased and another person several months before the killing. We agree with the court below that this evidence was purely hearsay, and the fact that it was offered for the general purpose of explaining and contradicting the dying declaration of deceased, without pointing out how or in what particulars it
The case was fairly tried by the court below, and the proofs, which amply justify the verdict, were reviewed and submitted to the jury in an adequate and impartial charge; we see no reason to reverse.
The assignments of error are all overruled, and the judgment is affirmed.