Com. ex rel. Lagana v. Day

• Decision Date: 25 May 1956
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania ex rel. John LAGANA, Appellant, v. Charles G. DAY, Warden, Eastern State Penitentiary. Appeal of John LAGANA
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Page 172

123 A.2d 172

385 Pa. 338

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania ex rel. John LAGANA, Appellant, v. Charles G. DAY, Warden, Eastern State Penitentiary Appeal of John LAGANA

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

May 25, 1956.

Petition for Rehearing Dismissed June 25, 1956.

Ivan Michaelson Czap, Philadelphia, for appellant.

Jerome B. Apfel, Victor Wright, Jr., Francis A. Biunno, Christopher F. Edley, Asst. Dist. Attys., James N. Lafferty, Deputy Dist. Atty., Victor H. Blanc, Dist. Atty., Philadelphia, for appellee.

Before STERN, C. J., And JONES, BELL, CHIDSEY, MUSMANNO and ARNOLD, JJ.

BELL, Justice.

On May 9, 1940, petitioner pleaded guilty to a bill of indictment charging him with murder. Three Judges found him guilty of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The Commonwealth proved that petitioner and two co-defendants conspired to rob one John S. Morrison; that they went to his apartment and tied and gagged Morrison's housekeeper, who died of strangulation.

Petitioner contended that his plea of guilty could not sustain a conviction of a crime greater than second degree murder and that a confession alone is insufficient to establish the corpus delicti. Similar, if not the same, contentions in different language were made by petitioner in 1951 and were rejected by this Court in Commonwealth ex rel. Lagana v. Burke, 372 Pa. 298, 93 A.2d 478. In that case this Court decided that the killing occurred in an attempt to perpetrate a robbery and that the evidence was sufficient to prove Lagana guilty of murder in the first degree.

In Commonwealth v. Homeyer, 373 Pa. 150, 94 A.2d 743, the head of Anna Homeyer, which was severed from her body and encased in concrete, was found in the cellar of defendant's home. We held that that was sufficient evidence without any confession and without any further evidence of the corpus delicti. The Court said, 373 Pa. at pages 156, 157, 94 A.2d at page 746:

'* * * The Commonwealth in such a case, in order to establish the corpus delicti, must prove (1) that the alleged victim is dead, and (2) that the death occurred as a result of a felonious act. The corpus delicti, like other facts, may be shown by circumstantial evidence; it is sufficient if these circumstances are consistent with crime even though they are also consistent with suicide or accident; if it were otherwise it would be impossible in many cases, where there were no eye witnesses, to convict a criminal. Commonwealth v. Gardner, 282 Pa. 458, 128 A 87; Commonwealth v. Turza, 340 Pa. 128, 16 A.2d 401; Commonwealth v. Johnson, 162 Pa. 63, 29 A. 280; Commonwealth v. Coontz, 288 Pa. 74, 135 A. 538; Commonwealth v. Bishop, 285 Pa. 49, 131 A. 657; Commonwealth v. Jones, 297 Pa. 326, 146 A. 905; Commonwealth v. Lettrich, 346 Pa. 497, 31 A.2d 155, 158.

'In the leading case of Commonwealth v. Gardner, 282 Pa. at page 462, 128 A. at page 89, supra, the Court said: 'In all criminal proceedings it is incumbent on the commonwealth to establish beyond a reasonable doubt three elements: (1) the occurrence of an injury or loos--in homicide, a person deceased; (2) a criminal agency--in homicide, for example, that the death was caused by a beating, gunshot, or circumstances indicating a felonious act(these two combined show a crime has been committed by someone); (3) that the defendant is the responsible party. Defendant contends that the crime for which he is charged was not committed. * * * The person for whose death a prosecution is instituted may be alive, so evidence that he or...