Com. ex rel Johnson v. Rundle

• Citation: 411 Pa. 497,192 A.2d 381
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania ex rel. James Morris JOHNSON v. Alfred T. RUNDLE, Superintendent, State Correctional Institution at Philadelphia, Pa., Appellant.
• Decision Date: 02 July 1963
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

Page 381

192 A.2d 381 411 Pa. 497 COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania ex rel. James Morris JOHNSON
v.
Alfred T. RUNDLE, Superintendent, State Correctional
Institution at Philadelphia, Pa., Appellant. Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. July 2, 1963.

[411 Pa. 498] Jules Bell, Asst. Dist. Atty., Richard Lowe, Dist. Atty., Norristown, for appellant.

H. Lester Haws, Ardmore, for appellee.

Before JOHN C. BELL, Jr., C. J., and MUSMANNO, JONES, COHEN, EAGEN, O'BRIEN and ROBERTS, JJ.

BELL, Chief Justice.

Johnson was convicted twice of murder in the first degree. In the first case the jury fixed the penalty at death and in the second case the jury fixed the penalty at life imprisonment. Johnson's first conviction was set aside by this Court because of trial errors. Commonwealth v. Johnson, 368 Pa. 139, 81 A.2d 569. His second conviction and sentence was sustained by this [411 Pa. 499] Court in a lengthy unanimous opinion in Commonwealth v. Johnson, 372 Pa. 266, 93 A.2d 691. After that decision, the Supreme Court of the United States denied certiorari. 345 U.S. 959, 73 S.Ct. 944, 97 L.Ed. 1379. In our opinion in 372 Pa. 266, 93 A.2d 691, this Court carefully reviewed and rejected all of Johnson's contentions, including his objections to the admissibility of prior convictions under the so-called Parker rule--Commonwealth v. Parker, 294 Pa. 144, 143 A. 904.

On May 9, 1948, a passenger train of the Reading Company was derailed and wrecked at a point in Montgomery County about 1 1/3d miles east of the Valley Forge Station. The engine and three cars were thrown on their sides, the lives of ninety-six passengers were jeopardized, and the engineer and the fireman of the train were killed. Johnson confessed he had removed the spikes from the rail and pointed out to the police the door of the tool house which he had broken in order to obtain a bar, a wrench and a pick. He also pointed out to the police the exact place where the train had been derailed. At the trial he partially repudiated his confessions and also relied upon an alibi.

Page 382

Johnson was convicted of the murder of the engineer and the fireman under Section 919 of The Penal Code of June 24, 1939, P.L. 872. Section 919 provides, inter alia, that 'Whoever wilfully and maliciously * * * removes or displaces any rail' of a railroad, is guilty of felony, and in every case where the life of a human being is destroyed by, or as a result of any of such acts, the offender 'shall be deemed guilty of murder in the first degree.'

After his second conviction, Johnson appealed to the Board of Pardons for clemency in 1958 and in 1959, but each time his petition was refused.

Johnson recently filed an application with the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County for a writ of habeas corpus principally on the grounds (a) that evidence of a prior conviction in the State of Delaware[411 Pa. 500] for 'obstructing a railroad' had been improperly admitted in evidence in his above mentioned murder trial and this amounted to a violation of due process, and (b) that his connection with the derailment and his conviction were based solely on confessions which were not voluntary and had been improperly obtained from him. ¹

Judge Quinlan granted the writ and from his Order the Commonwealth, through the Superintendent of the State Correction Institution, now appeals. The Order which is appealed from was as follows:

'AND NOW, June 28, 1962, for the foregoing reasons, it is directed that the judgment and sentence in the above case be hereby set aside and vacated and that the Writ of Habeas Corpus be issued directing Alfred T. Rundle, Superintendent, State Correctional Institution at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to release James Morris Johnson to the custody of Andrew J. White, Warden, Montgomery County Jail, to which latter institution James Morris Johnson is remanded to await trial on the said bills of indictment charging him with murder. By the Court: (s) Daniel L. Quinlan, Jr., J.'

The hearing Judge based his decision and Order on the following facts, reasoning and conclusions. One juror stated, on his voir dire, that he would not impose the penalty of death (if the Commonwealth proved beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant had committed the crime of murder in the first degree), because he did not believe in capital punishment; and this juror was not challenged...