Commonwealth v. Payne
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Appeal, No. 281, Jan. T., 1913, by defendant, from judgment of O. & T. Fayette Co., March T., 1913, No. 29, on verdict of guilty of murder of the first degree in case of Commonwealth v. John Payne, alias John W. Paine. Indictment for murder.
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Appeal, No. 281, Jan. T., 1913, by defendant, from judgment of O. & T. Fayette Co., March T., 1913, No. 29, on verdict of guilty of murder of the first degree in case of Commonwealth v. John Payne, alias John W. Paine. Indictment for murder. Before Umbel, P. J. As to the law of self defense the court charged the jury as follows; “The law of self defense is a law of necessity, and that necessity must be real or bear all the semblance of reality, and appear to admit of no other alternative before the taking of life would be justifiable, or excusable, and the burden lies on the prisoner to prove…
1Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
Me. Justice Beown,
The appellant comes here with three complaints. The first is of the refusal of the court below to strike from the indictment the record of the defendant’s conviction of rape. It contained two counts: one for murder, and the other for voluntary manslaughter. It further charged that the prisoner had been convicted of voluntary manslaughter in 1891 and of rape in 1895. The Commonwealth could not have anticipated with certainty a verdict of guilty of murder of the first degree, and the manifest purpose of inserting in the indictment a count for voluntary manslaughter,…
2Cases cited4 opinions
- Commonwealth v. RaccoSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1909
- Rauch v. CommonwealthSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1875
- Commonwealth v. CaraffaSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1908
- Kane v. CommonwealthSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1885
3Cited by33 opinions
- Massey v. United StatesCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit · 1922
- Commonwealth v. QuarantaSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1928
- Commonwealth v. AponteSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 2004
- Commonwealth v. GibbsSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1950
- Commonwealth v. RussoguloSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1919
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