Meyers v. Commonwealth
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Error to the Court of Oyer and Terminer of Allegheny county: Of October and November Term 1876, No 257. Indictment of Frederick Meyers, for the murder of Augustus Dorn, alias “ United States Baker.”
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Error to the Court of Oyer and Terminer of Allegheny county: Of October and November Term 1876, No 257. Indictment of Frederick Meyers, for the murder of Augustus Dorn, alias “ United States Baker.” On the evening of the 29th of February 1876, as alleged by the Commonwealth, at a saloon on the corner of Third Avenue and Market street, in the city of Pittsburgh, kept by the prisoner, the latter thrust a poker, heated to “white heat,” into the groin of Dorn, and thence upwards into his abdominal cavity, from the effects of which he died about two weeks thereafter. The defence was, 1st. That, on…
1Opinion of the CourtChief Justice Agnew
There is one error for which the sentence in this case must be reversed. It appears in several parts of the charge, leaving no doubt as to the meaning of the learned judge who presided at the trial. It must, therefore, have impressed the minds of the jurors. Without specifying each instance, it may be summed up in a single statement, that the judge instructed the jury, that they must be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt, that the' prisoner was insane at the time the act was committed. This statement is too stringent and throws the prisoner upon a degree of proof beyond the legal measure of…
2Cited by29 opinions
- Commonwealth v. ColandroSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1911
- Commonwealth v. DonoughSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1954
- Commonwealth v. DeitrickSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1908
- Commonwealth v. NobleSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1952
- Commonwealth v. PrincipattiSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1918
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