Com. v. Petrisko

• Decision Date: 12 November 1968
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. George J. PETRISKO, Appellant.

Page 581

247 A.2d 581

432 Pa. 250

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. George J. PETRISKO, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Nov. 12, 1968.

[432 Pa. 251] Thomas W. Henderson, Pittsburgh, for appellant.

Robert W. Duggan, Dist. Atty., Charles B. Watkins, Asst. Dist. Atty., Carol Mary Los, Asst. Dist. Atty., Pittsburgh, for appellee.

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

OPINION

EAGEN, Justice.

On December 11, 1967, the appellant, George J. Petrisko, was arrested in Allegheny County on the charge of murder. He was arraigned before a committing magistrate the following day and held without bail for trial. On January 17, 1968, the grand jury returned a true bill. On June 27, 1968, Petrisko, not having been tried on the indictment, filed a petition for discharge from imprisonment under the Act of March 31, 1860, P.L. 427, § 54, as amended, Act of December 1, 1959, P.L. 1671, § 1, 19 P.S. § 781. From the lower court's order denying the petition after hearing, this appeal was filed. We affirm.

The Act of 1860, supra, in pertinent part provides as follows:

'If any person shall be committed for treason or felony, or other indictable offense and shall not be indicted and tried some time in the next term, session of oyer and terminer, general jail delivery, or other court where the offense is properly cognizable, or in counties of the second class if any person shall be committed for treason or felony or other indictable offense and shall not be indicted and tried within six months in a court where the offense is properly cognizable, after such commitment, it shall and may be lawful for the judges or justices thereof, and they are heregy required on the last day of the term, sessions, or court, or in counties of the second class within six months of the commitment for treason or felony or other indictable offense, to set at liberty the said prisoner upon bail, unless it shall appear to them, upon oath or affirmation, that the witnesses for the commonwealth, mentioning their names, could not then be produced; and if such prisoner shall not be indicted and tried the second term, session or court after his or her committment, or in counties of the second class if such prisoner shall not be indicted and tried within six months after his or her commitment, unless the delay happen on the application or with the assent of the defendant, or upon trial he shall be acquitted, he shall be discharged from imprisonment: *...