Com. ex rel. Geiger v. Burke

• Citation: 371 Pa. 230,89 A.2d 495
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH ex rel. GEIGER v. BURKE, Warden, et al.
• Decision Date: 24 June 1952
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

Page 495

89 A.2d 495 371 Pa. 230 COMMONWEALTH ex rel. GEIGER
v.
BURKE, Warden, et al. Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. June 24, 1952.

[371 Pa. 231] Joseph N. Bongiovanni, Jr., Philadelphia, Frank R. Hean, Harrisburg, Julius C. Acchione, Philadelphia, for appellant.

Huette F. Dowling, Dist. Atty. of Dauphin County, Richard D. Walker, Asst. Dist. Atty., Harrisburg, for appellee.

[371 Pa. 230] Before DREW, C. J., and STERN, STEARNE, JONES, BELL, CHIDSEY, and MUSMANNO, JJ.

[371 Pa. 231] ALLEN M. STEARNE, Justice.

Relator appeals from the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Dauphin County denying his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The court below granted a rule to show cause, and answers were filed by the Warden of the Eastern Penitentiary and the District Attorney of Dauphin County. After argument on the petition and answers, the rule was discharged.

Relator is serving a term of life imprisonment fixed by a jury at his trial for the murder of his mistress, Jane E. Weaver. He was represented at trial by eminent and experienced counsel, who filed no motion for new trial. An important item of evidence introduced at the trial was a detailed confession of the crime given by relator a few hours after he was taken in custody. There is no allegation that the confession was coerced.

At the trial, evidence was adduced to establish that defendant suffered from epilepsy. Relator's counsel called to the witness stand a doctor, who testified that relator was an epileptic and that in his opinion relator might have been in a post epileptic trance when he gave the confession. The doctor described at length the irresponsibility of persons in such a trance.

[371 Pa. 232] In support of his present petition, relator has presented an affidavit by...