158 Pa. 88 | Pa. | 1893
Opinion by
The plaintiff was a witness on behalf of the commonwealth upon a trial of a defendant for a misdemeanor. The defendant was convicted. A motion was made for a new trial, which was refused; but the court of quarter sessions suspended the sentence indefinitely, and the defendant was discharged from his recognizance and allowed to go without day. The defendants, commissioners of Armstrong county, refuse to pay the witnesses for the commonwealth, alleging that under the act of 1887, the liability of the county does not arise until a sentence fixing the extent of the punishment to be inflicted on the defendant has been pronounced by the court. The court below, entertaining the same view of the act of 1887, entered judgment in favor of the defendants, and from that judgment this appeal was taken.
Under the act of 1860, the costs of prosecution in all cases of misdemeanor were under the control of juries. The grand jury, after hearing the witnesses for the commonwealth, determined the character of their return. If this was adverse to the commonwealth, the prosecution ended with the return of “ ignoramus,” and the grand jury proceeded to impose the costs of the prosecution on the prosecutor or on the county. If the return was that the indictment was a “ true bill,” the guilt or innocence of the defendant, and the proper disposition of the costs, passed to the petit jury before which the defendant might come for trial. If he was acquitted, the jury had to determine whether he, the prosecutor, or the county should pay the costs. They might divide them, imposing some part of them on the de
The learned judge gave too narrow an interpretation to the act of 1887, and the judgment must be reversed.
Judgment is now entered in favor of the plaintiff and against the county of Armstrong on the case stated for the sum of ten dollars and twenty cents, with interest and costs.