91 N.J.L. 395 | N.J. | 1918
The opinion of the court was delivered by
1. As to the plea of autrefois convict, we need add nothing to the opinion we expressed when the ease was before us on the demurrer. Whether it was necessary to allow the defendant to file a new plea to the same effect is a question of no moment. The permission to file a new plea was in favor of the plaintiff in error. The verdict thereon has settled as a fact what the demurrer admitted for purpose of passing on the legal sufficiency of the plea. We find in this respect no error.
2. We think the defendant might properly be convicted as principal. He pointed out the deceased to Herbert who is said to have struck the fatal blow, and to McCracken who rifled the man’s pockets; he was present when the pocketbook was opened by McCracken in Herbert’s room immedn ately after the robbery. The jury might well have believed that he was near enough to render assistance when the blow was struck and prepared to do so. This made him principal in fhe second degree. Roesel v. State, 62 N. J. L. 216, 222. The law was carefully stated by the learned trial judge. We find no error in this respect.
3. The only question that has caused us any difficulty is the question of the admissibility of the confession. It was
The only question left is whether the error was harmful. Ordinarily, it would he. But this case is not an ordinary one. The defendant had pleaded guilty to an indictment for robbery. When called upon to plead to the present indictment for murder, he pleaded autrefois convict, averring that the offence charged in the indictment for robbery was the same as that charged in the present indictment for murder. The record of the conviction of robbery was offered and admitted in evidence without objection on the part of the defendant, and he himself on the trial of the issue raised by the court’s entry of the plea of not guilty, was careful to insist that his plea of autrefois convict should be in evidence. His contention throughout the proceedings was that the facts were the same in both cases, and that for this very reason, he must be exculpated from the more serious charge. The conviction of robbery established the violent assault upon the deceased; the plea of autrefois convict was an admission that the facts were the same in the present ease; from these estab