141 A. 289 | Pa. | 1928
Argued January 25, 1928. Rodger Loftus shot and killed Dora Terrell, in the City of Philadelphia, early in the morning of September 27, 1926. He was convicted of murder of the first degree, and the jury, in rendering their verdict, fixed the penalty at death. The court below sentenced defendant accordingly and this appeal followed.
Appellant states but one question involved: "Does the Act of May 14, 1925, P. L. 759, which provides that if a jury shall find a defendant guilty of murder in the first degree it shall say whether the penalty shall be the death penalty or that of imprisonment for life, violate article I, section 6, of the Constitution of Pennsylvania, which provides that 'trial by jury shall be as heretofore, and the right thereof remain inviolate'?"
As recently stated by us in Com. v. Haldeman,
When the question of the constitutionality of the Act of 1925 was recently before us under another attack, in Com. v. Myers,
There is one other matter to which we feel obliged to call attention. Rule 55 of this court provides that "Evidence which has no relation to or connection with questions raised by assignments of error must not be printed." One hundred and sixty-six printed pages of the present record relate exclusively to the examination of jurors on their voir dire and have nothing whatever to do with any question raised by the assignments of error in the case. True, because the Act of February 15, 1870, P. L. 15, requires us to review the evidence "to determine whether the ingredients necessary to constitute murder in the first degree shall have been proved to exist," it is always necessary, on appeal from a sentence on a verdict of first degree murder, that the body of the evidence relating to the offense charged in the indictment shall be printed in full; but where, as here, there is no assignment of error which complains of the manner in which the jurors were selected, there is no reason or excuse for printing the notes of testimony relating thereto. Counsel in this case were appointed by the court below under the Act of March 22, 1907, P. L. 31, to represent the prisoner. This act provides that such *400 counsel shall be allowed a fee, not to exceed a set sum, and expenses. The Act of June 3, 1911, P. L. 627, provides that, when counsel shall have been assigned to one indicted on a charge of murder, and the defendant shall have been convicted of murder of the first degree, if counsel deems it necessary to appeal, he may, by order of the court which appointed him, be repaid out of the public funds "the cost of printing the paper book." Counsel in the position of the attorneys who represent the defendant in this case are trusted by the Commonwealth, and they should feel a sense of responsibility not to waste money of the people by unnecessarily increasing expenses. The court intrusted with the enforcement of the acts last above referred to should carefully scan accounts filed by such counsel, and when waste of the character to which we here refer occurs, payment therefor should not be allowed.
The assignments of error are all overruled, the judgment is affirmed, and the record is remitted for the purpose of execution.