McClain v. Commonwealth
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Error to the Court of Oyer and Termiuer of Mifflin county : Of July Term, 1885 No. 15. This was an indictment against Curtin McClain for the killing of William Smearman. Upon the trial, before Bucher, P. J., the Commonwealth proved tliat Curtin McClain, a miner, left his home in Orbisonia on August 21st, 1884, to go to a camp-meeting at Newton Hamilton in Mifflin county. Before leaving Orbisonia, he went to a hardware store and purchased a knife.
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Error to the Court of Oyer and Termiuer of Mifflin county : Of July Term, 1885 No. 15. This was an indictment against Curtin McClain for the killing of William Smearman. Upon the trial, before Bucher, P. J., the Commonwealth proved tliat Curtin McClain, a miner, left his home in Orbisonia on August 21st, 1884, to go to a camp-meeting at Newton Hamilton in Mifflin county. Before leaving Orbisonia, he went to a hardware store and purchased a knife. He rejected the first knife shown him because it was rough on the edge. He purchased the second one offered him, which Avas long and tapering and…
1Opinion of the CourtJustice Paxson
The plaintiff in error was convicted in the court below iff *268murder of the first degree, and has removed the record into this court by a writ of error for review. The first assignment is that “ The ingredients of murder in the first degree do not exist in this case.”
It was urged in support of this proposition that no motive existed for the killing; that the deceased was unknown to the plaintiff, and that the evidence disclosed neither malice nor premeditation.
The killing took place in the evening in the vicinity of a camp-meeting. The plaintiff armed himself with a butcher knife, which he…
2Cited by17 opinions
- Commonwealth v. SparduteSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1923
- Commonwealth v. Samuel JonesSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1946
- Commonwealth v. Del GiornoSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1931
- Commonwealth v. JonesSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1941
- Commonwealth v. LessnerSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1922
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