Commonwealth v. Maloney

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Horace Stern,

In this appeal from the conviction by a jury of first degree murder with the death penalty the defendant, Walter Maloney, Jr., complains of errors in the trial judge’s charge and alleged misconduct on the part of the District Attorney.

In 1930 Maloney was convicted in Philadelphia of murder in the first degree with the penalty fixed at life imprisonment; he was confined in the Eastern State Penitentiary and there met one Alexander Niemi, a fellow prisoner. Maloney’s life sentence was commuted by the Pardon Board and he was released in 1946. He subsequently…