Commonwealth v. Jolliffe
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
THE prisoner was indicted for arson. The Attorney-General challenged for cause, and showed that the juror was summoned as a witness for the prisoner; which Austin insisted was not a principal cause of challenge, and cited Harper v. Kean, 11 Serg. & Rawle 280. The Court, by Gibson, C. J. (without hearing M’Giffin and Howl contra)..—A very slight probability of bias is sufficient to exclude.
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THE prisoner was indicted for arson. The Attorney-General challenged for cause, and showed that the juror was summoned as a witness for the prisoner; which Austin insisted was not a principal cause of challenge, and cited Harper v. Kean, 11 Serg. & Rawle 280. The Court, by Gibson, C. J. (without hearing M’Giffin and Howl contra)..—A very slight probability of bias is sufficient to exclude. A juror has been set aside because he was godfather to the plaintiff’s child ; Moore 2>,pl. 10; and several causes of challenge, as nice, have been sustained, as for very remote consanguinity or a malicious…
1Opinion of the Court
The Court,
by Gibson, C. J.
At no time since the 33 Ed. 1 could the crown or the commonwealth challenge peremptorily. By that statute it was ordained that “if they who sue for the king will challenge any of those jurors, they shall assign of their challenge a cause certain ; and the truth of the same challenge shall be inquired of according to the custom of the court.” And this enactment, which stood in force here till it was supplied by the act of 1813, had been so construed as not to require the attorney-geueral to show cause of challenge before the panel was exhausted. The act of 1813 simply…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Commonwealth v. LesherSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1828
3Cited by7 opinions
- State v. StentzWashington Supreme Court · 1902
- Zell v. CommonwealthSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1880
- Warren v. CommonwealthSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1861
- Haines v. CommonwealthSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1882
- United States v. DouglassU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York · 1851
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