Commonwealth v. Burdell

Opinion by

Me. Chief Justice Hoeace Steen,

A petition filed by defendant for the allowance of an appeal from the judgment of the Superior Court (176 Pa. Superior Ct. 219, 107 A. 2d 739) affirming his conviction and sentence on the charge of armed robbery seemed to us to establish a reasonable doubt whether he had had a fair and proper trial and therefore we allowed this appeal.

On the early morning of March 12, 1952, one Saul, a resident of Butler, went, together with three friends, Fratta, Mendocini and Yergili, to a hotel in Pittsburgh, where they indulged in a drinking orgy that apparently…