Commonwealth v. Vassar

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Musmanno,

On January 13, 1951, Beatrice Vassar, 55 years of age, shot and killed her husband, 71 years of age, in New Kensington, Westmoreland County. She was indicted, tried, and convicted of murder in the first degree; and sentenced under the finding of the jury, to life imprisonment. Her motion in the lower Court for a new trial was refused and an appeal has been taken to this Court.

A new trial could possibly bring to the defendant ill omen because, on the evidence presented by the Commonwealth and defense itself, another jury could quite reasonably return a first…