Mifflin v. Commonwealth
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
ERROR to the Quarter Sessions of Cumberland county. Joseph Mifflin, Robert C. Hays and David H. Culbertson, were indicted for having conspired to effect the escape of Jane M. Nevin, an infant, and for having, in pursuance of such conspiracy, actually assisted her to escape in the night, with a view to her marriage with Charles M. Reynolds.
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ERROR to the Quarter Sessions of Cumberland county. Joseph Mifflin, Robert C. Hays and David H. Culbertson, were indicted for having conspired to effect the escape of Jane M. Nevin, an infant, and for having, in pursuance of such conspiracy, actually assisted her to escape in the night, with a view to her marriage with Charles M. Reynolds. A motion in arrest of judgment, on the ground that the matters charged were not indictable, was overruled, and the indictment was removed to this court. argued that the offence was not indictable,; that neither the design of the parties, the object…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
Gibson, C. J.
The law of conspiracy is certainly in a very unsettled state. The decisions have gone on no distinctive prin*462ciple; nor are they always consistent. It is settled, however, that' there are acts which, though innocent when done by an individual, are criminal when done in concert; but they are not very satisfactorily defined. Mr Russel has attempted to arrange them under particular heads in his Treatise on Crimes, (Vol. 2. p. 553), two of which—confederacies to' do a private wrong, and confederacies to do a public mischief—seem to comprise the…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- State v. BuchananCourt of Appeals of Maryland · 1821
3Cited by7 opinions
- Commonwealth v. DyerMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1922
- Commonwealth v. BrownSuperior Court of Pennsylvania · 1903
- Commonwealth v. WilsonSuperior Court of Pennsylvania · 1906
- Morris Run Coal Co. v. Barclay Coal Co.Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1871
- Commonwealth v. HegedusSuperior Court of Pennsylvania · 1910
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