Commonwealth v. Horner
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Error to the Quarter Sessions of Westmoreland county. This was an appeal from the taxation of costs, on an indictment for larceny against Isaac Horner and Samuel Horner, by Jacob Harrold, the prosecutor. At November Sessions 1858, two bills of indictment were found against the defendant, at the instance of the same prosecutor, one of them, for conspiracy to cheat, &c., and the other, for larceny. Isaac Horner, one of the defendants, was not arrested.
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Error to the Quarter Sessions of Westmoreland county. This was an appeal from the taxation of costs, on an indictment for larceny against Isaac Horner and Samuel Horner, by Jacob Harrold, the prosecutor. At November Sessions 1858, two bills of indictment were found against the defendant, at the instance of the same prosecutor, one of them, for conspiracy to cheat, &c., and the other, for larceny. Isaac Horner, one of the defendants, was not arrested. At the February Sessions 1859, Samuel Horner was tried on the indictment for conspiracy, and convicted; and at the May Sessions following, the…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
Woodward, J.
At common law, a defendant indicted for crime, was liable for the costs of prosecution, whether he was convicted or acquitted on the trial, and the law continued to be so in Pennsylvania, until the Act of 20th March 1797 was passed. That act provided, that all costs accruing on bills of indictment, charging a party with any felony, breach of the peace, or other indictable offence, shall, if such party be acquitted by a petit jury on the traverse of the same, be paid out of the county stock by the county in which the prosecution commenced.…
2Cited by1 opinion
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