Peyton v. Margiotti

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Bok,

In 1947 Charles J. Margiotti, Esquire, defended Charles Peyton against a charge of felonious homicide. The result was a conviction of murder in the second degree, which, with a recommendation of mercy, led Chief Justice Maxey to remark at the end of his opinion of affirmance, at 360 Pa. 441 (1948), that Peyton’s escape from a worse fate “cannot be attributed to any weakness in the Commonwealth’s case.” The ensuing sentence was from ten to twenty years in the penitentiary.

For his services Margiotti received $13,580, including a payment of $5000 which is the subject of…