Commonwealth Ex Rel. Ashmon v. Banmiller

Opinion by

Mr. Chief Justice Jones,

The appellant, who is serving a life sentence in the Eastern State Penitentiary for murder, appeals from an order of the court below dismissing his petition for a writ of habeas corpus.

When, as. defendant, the appellant' was arraigned on. the indictment charging him with murder, he entered a plea of-guilty. But, at the hearing before the court for the taking of testimony in order to fix the' degree of the crime and the penalty, he claimed that his fatal stabbing of the deceased was done in self defense and also contended that, even if adjudged guilty, of a…