Commonwealth v. Pierce
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Indictment, in five counts, for manslaughter. The first count alleged that Franklin Pierce, at West Boylston, in the county of Worcester, “on the seventh day of January, in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-three, and on divers other days and times between that day and the ninth day of January, in said year eighteen hundred and eighty-three, in and upon one Mary A. Bemis of said West Boylston, in the county aforesaid, wilfully and feloniously, did make divers assaults,…
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Indictment, in five counts, for manslaughter. The first count alleged that Franklin Pierce, at West Boylston, in the county of Worcester, “on the seventh day of January, in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-three, and on divers other days and times between that day and the ninth day of January, in said year eighteen hundred and eighty-three, in and upon one Mary A. Bemis of said West Boylston, in the county aforesaid, wilfully and feloniously, did make divers assaults, and that the said Franklin Pierce did then, and at the several times aforesaid, there wilfully, feloniously, ignorantly,…
1Opinion of the CourtHolmes, J.
The defendant has been found guilty of manslaughter, on evidence that he publicly practised as a physician, and, being called to attend a sick woman, caused her, with her consent, to be kept in flannels saturated with kerosene for three days, more or less, by reason of which she died. There was evidence that he had made similar applications with favorable results in other cases, but that in one the effect had been to blister and burn the flesh as in the present case.
The main questions which have been argued before us are raised by the fifth and sixth rulings requested on behalf' of the…
2Cases cited9 opinions
- Commonwealth v. MacloonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1869
- Commonwealth v. StrattonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1873
- Commonwealth v. MinkMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1877
- Commonwealth v. DrewMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1808
- Commonwealth v. CollbergMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1876
4 more not listed; retrieve them via the Exa API.
3Cited by137 opinions
- Farmer v. BrennanSupreme Court of the United States · 1994
- Commonwealth v. WelanskyMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1944
- Stone v. Essex County Newspapers, Inc.Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1975
- Dubay v. IrishSupreme Court of Connecticut · 1988
- Farmer v. BrennanSupreme Court of the United States · 1994
132 more not listed; retrieve them via the Exa API.