264 Pa. 246 | Pa. | 1919
Opinion by
The appellant was under indictment in the Oyer and Terminer Court of Northampton County charging him with the crime of murder. Upon being arraigned he pleaded non vult contendere. This plea was accepted by the court on the assumption that it was the equivalent of a plea of guilty, and the court thereupon proceeded by examination of witnesses to determine the degree of guilt. At the conclusion of the examination, in open court, the defendant and his counsel being present, the court adjudged and determined that the degree of defendant’s guilt, “convicted by his own confession,” was “murder of the first degree.” Exceptions to the order and findings of the court were dismissed, and thereupon the appropriate sentence of the law, death by electrocution, was pronounced upon and against the defendant. This appeal followed. While there are several assignments of error we may confine the discussion to a single point raised by the appeal from the adjudication, namely, was error committed by the court in accepting the plea of non vult contendere as a plea of guilty, and proceeding thereunder to determine by examination of witnesses the degree of the crime and pronouncing of sentence accordingly? If this was error, it was of such serious import that a reversal of the judgment must follow inevitably. It is only in cases where a defendant charged with murder “shall be convicted by confession,” that the court shall proceed by
In the opinion filed by the learned president judge in the present case he cites as sustaining his view that the plea of non vult contendere is the same as the plea of guilty, from our own authorities, the cases of Buck v. Com., 107 Pa. 486; Commonwealth v. Holstine, 132 Pa. 357, and Com. ex rel. v. Jackson, 248 Pa. 530. Our purpose has been to show that such plea is not admissible in capital cases, not disputing its applicability when the offense charged is of low grade. In the first of these cases the question was whether the plea of nolo contendere by the principal (no judgment or sentence having been imposed) was admissible in evidence on the trial of one charged as an accessory. It was held inadmissible because, even though the equivalent of a confession by the principal, it was as to the accessory res inter alias acta, and that the confession by the principal is not admissible upon the trial of the accessory to prove the guilt of the principal. The crime there charged was robbery. We have found no case in Pennsylvania, nor has our attention been directed to any, where the plea was held available in cases where the charge was robbery or other crime of like magnitude. The ease cited does not rule the point, and no warrant can be found in it for the conclusion reached by the president judge in this. In the case of Commonwealth v. Holstine, next cited, the plea was admitted where the offense charged was unlawful sales of intoxicating liquor. And it was there held on the authority of Buck v. Commonwealth, supra, that the plea “though not technically a plea of guilty, is so substantially and justifies the court in imposing sentence.” The other of the cases arose on a suggestion for a writ quo warranto which alleged that the defendants who were school directors had been separately indicted charged
The judgment accordingly is reversed, and the record is remanded with direction that appellant have leave to withdraw Ms plea of non vult contendere formerly pleaded and plead anew to the indictment as though such plea had never been entered.