Bernard Ross v. James F. Maroney, Superintendent of the Correctional Institution at Pittsburgh

This is a capital case in which the Commonwealth sought the death penalty from the beginning. In such a case it was essential that appellant’s rights should be carefully safeguarded in the admission of evidence. Appellant had conceded that he had shot Mrs. Boston, and the sole issue in the case was his premeditation in her killing. While evidence of the circumstances involving the *59shooting of Daniel and Russell Boston, the weapon used and the aim of the shots fired at them, was relevant and admissible on the issue of premeditation (Commonwealth v. Wable, 382 Pa. 80, 114 A.2d 334 (1955)),…