229 Pa. 587 | Pa. | 1911
Opinion by
The appellant was convicted in the court below of murder of the first degree, and has brought the record here for review. In the first assignment of error counsel for appellant complain that the court below erred in unduly emphasizing the lack of ground for reasonable doubt, in instructing the jury as follows: “If there is a reasonable doubt that he did the shooting, he is entitled to an acquittal. But in the light of all the testimony can there be a reasonable doubt as to his guilt? ” It is further argued that in the portion of the charge assigned for error in the second, third and fourth assignments, the court unduly assumed that under the evidence there could be no reasonable doubt that the appellant shot and killed Mrs. Domboy. We are not so impressed, in read
No testimony whatever was offered in behalf of the defense, but the trial judge instructed the jury that the burden was upon the commonwealth to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the appellant was the guilty party. The definition of a reasonable doubt was set before the jury in terms to which no exception could be taken. This was followed by the instruction that if the jury found there was no reasonable doubt that the appellant killed Mrs. Domboy, it would then be their duty to determine the grade of the crime. The learned trial judge then put before the jury the language of the statute as to the degrees of murder, and gave to them the definition of the terms “willful,” “deliberate” and “premeditated” killing, substantially in language which has been many times approved by this court. The testimony shows that the appellant evidently shot Mrs. Domboy intentionally, by deliberately holding his pistol, a deadly weapon, so near to her head as to leave deeply stained powder marks upon the skin. It is true there was no evidence of a quarrel and a definite motive for the crime did not appear; but the fact of a deliberate and intentional killing was shown. When the fact appears the inability to discover the motive does not disprove the crime: Lanahan v. Com., 84 Pa. 80. From the nature and use of the weapon, and from the acts and conduct of the prisoner, we think his intention to kill was fairly and justly to be inferred; and that the time used in the commission of the crime,
The eleventh assignment of error, which suggested error in the allowance of a slight amendment to the record, made after the expiration of the term, was not pressed in the argument. The minutes of the trial, as originally entered by the clerk, did not show that the motion for a new trial, filed by defendant, was argued before the court in the presence of the defendant, Steve Rusk:; and did not show that he was present in the court at the time of the refusal of a new trial, and when sentence was imposed upon him. As a matter of fact, he was present upon these occasions, and the amendment was allowed for the purpose of making the record conform to the fact in these respects. There can be no doubt of the power of the court to amend its record so as to make it conform to the truth, even after the term has expired. See Crew, Levick & Co. v. McCafferty, 124 Pa. 200, and cases there cited.
We find no merit in any of the assignments of error, and they are all dismissed.
It is ordered that the judgment be affirmed and the record remitted to the court below, that the sentence may be executed.