223 Pa. 494 | Pa. | 1909
Opinion by
After a trial in which defendant had accorded to him every privilege which an accused has a right to demand or expect, the appellant was convicted of murder in the first degree. The record is practically free from exceptions, and none are here brought for review except a general one to the charge of the court. The several assignments of error show to what severe analysis and scrutiny this charge, evidently intended to be full, fair and impartial, has been subjected to at the hands of able and zealous counsel. Separate discussion of each is unnecessary. In the argument on appellant’s behalf several propositions have been submitted which include them all, and in disposing of these every assignment will have been considered.
The fact of killing was not denied; nor was there any dispute as to the circumstances attending the immediate commission of the act. The victim was a young woman about thirty years of age. She was shot and killed by the prisoner on the evening of October 14, 1907, at about six o’clock, on a public street in the city of Philadelphia, while returning home from the place of her employment, in company with two of her female friends. The prisoner a half hour before had gone to the shop where she worked, and inquired whether she was still there. In company with two companions of his own, he overtook these girls while on their way, and advancing upon his victim discharged a pistol at her head, with no other effect, however, "than to throw her from her feet upon the ground. Instantly he was over her, and while she was there prostrate, fired the shot which quickly terminated her life. To the officer who made the arrest, arid within a few minutes after the occurrence, he said he shot the girl because he wanted some money from her with which to pay a doctor; that he had been going with her for a long time but that she had refused to go with him any more; that he was suffering
There is quite as little merit in the exception taken to the
The remaining assignments simply question the general fairness and impartiality of the charge. We have given them all careful consideration. In the presentation of the evidence on the one side and the other, the charge, as we read it, is characterized by the utmost fairness. Specific reference to each item of testimony is never required; here it was impracticable in view of the fact that the evidence for the defense alone covers nearly 200 pages of the record. Doubtless some of this, which defendant’s counsel thinks important, escaped special reference; but this is something not always to be avoided, and in this case it suggests neither unfairness in purpose or effect. It is certainly true that the charge was full and comprehensive to a degree which must have served to recall to the minds of the jury the evidence pertinent to the main questions in the case. A review of the whole case discloses no error, and leaves us in no doubt whatever that the defendant had a fair and impartial trial, with every right accorded him. That he is a proper object of pity because of his enfeebled mental power, however caused, whether by development of hereditary taint or his own evil courses, or both combined, must be admitted; but that he fully understood the nature of the act he was committing in taking the life of his victim; and that he was conscious of the
Judgment affirmed, and record remitted for' the purpose of execution according to law.