Commonwealth v. Meleskie
| Decision Date | 07 January 1924 |
| Docket Number | 90 |
| Citation | 278 Pa. 383,123 A. 310 |
| Parties | Commonwealth v. Meleskie, Appellant |
| Court | Pennsylvania Supreme Court |
Argued October 1, 1923
Appeal, No. 90, Oct. T., 1923, by defendant, from judgment of O. & T. Cambria Co., Sept. T., 1922, No. 4, on verdict of guilty of murder of the first degree in case of Commonwealth v. John Meleskie. Affirmed.
Indictment for murder. Before EVANS, P.J.
The opinion of the Supreme Court states the facts.
Verdict of guilty of murder of the first degree on which judgment of sentence was passed. Defendant appealed.
Errors assigned were (1) in failing to charge the jury on the question of manslaughter; (2) in failing to charge the jury fully on the weight, effect and consideration to be given to dying declarations, and (3) in imposing judgment and sentence on defendant, without quoting the record.
The assignments of error are overruled, the judgment is affirmed and the record is remitted for the purpose of execution.
C Randolph Myers, with him Thomas C. Evans, for appellant. -- Under all the evidence in the case the court erred in failing to charge the jury on the question of manslaughter: Com. v. Buccierrie, 153 Pa. 535; Com. v. Sutton, 205 Pa. 605; Com. v. Colandro, 231 Pa. 343; Com. v. Curcio, 216 Pa. 380; Com. v. Marcinko, 242 Pa. 388; Meyers v. Com., 83 Pa. 131.
The court erred in failing to charge fully on the effect to be given to dying declarations: Meyers v. Com., 83 Pa. 131; Com. v. Pacito, 229 Pa. 328; Com. v. Shults, 221 Pa. 466; Com. v. Caraffa, 222 Pa. 297.
D. P. Weimer, District Attorney, for appellee, cited: Com. v. Lessner, 274 Pa. 108; McMeen v. Com., 114 Pa. 300.
Before MOSCHZISKER, C.J., FRAZER, WALLING, SIMPSON, KEPHART, SADLER and SCHAFFER, JJ.
John Meleskie appeals from a sentence on conviction of first degree murder, contending that the trial judge committed material error in two respects: First, by instructing the jury there was no evidence of manslaughter in the case; and, second, in failing to charge properly on the weight, effect and consideration to be given dying declarations.
According to the testimony for the prosecution, the firing of two shots, shortly followed by a third, on the morning of May 15, 1922, attracted several witnesses to the house where defendant lived with Annie Turczyns, the deceased, and her husband. The victim of the crime was found, severely wounded, lying in the yard of her home, and inside, on the floor of the hall leading from her bedroom, lay the defendant Meleskie, unconscious, with a bullet wound in the left temple, and his revolver (containing three discharged and two loaded cartridges) eight inches away from his hand.
The Commonwealth introduced dying declarations of the deceased, -- made immediately after she was found and subsequently repeated in the presence of the physician who dressed her wounds, the chief of police and others, -- to the effect that, on the morning of the crime, the victim's husband left to attend a miners' meeting at Nanty-Glo, and, shortly after his departure, defendant came into her room and made improper proposals, with which she refused to comply, whereupon he attempted to ravish her; when she tried to call assistance, he shot her twice and himself once; then she rushed downstairs and out into the yard, where she was later discovered.
Defendant testified that on the morning in question he was not feeling well, so did not accompany Mike Turczyns, deceased's husband, to Nanty-Glo, as he had expected to do; that, after Mike left, he, Meleskie, was in his own room drinking from a bottle of alcohol, when deceased entered; she also felt ill and he gave her some of the liquor; she left the room, and he took a few more swallows, when his mind became blank, and he recollected nothing more until he awoke in a hospital several days later. When called for sentence, however, defendant said the testimony he had previously given was untrue; that in reality he had gone into the room of Annie Turczyns, and caught hold of her, when her husband returned and shot him, and at the trial he did not know she was dead, so lied to protect her.
On the question of manslaughter, defendant contends that whether or not the killing was done in the heat of passion,...
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Com. v. Bolish
...and other cases hereinabove set forth; compare also Commonwealth v. La Rue, 381 Pa. 113, 112 A.2d 362 and Commonwealth v. Meleskie, 278 Pa. 383, 123 A. 310; and for the reasons set forth at length in Commonwealth v. Comber, 374 Pa. 570, 578-579, 97 A.2d 343, 37 A.L.R.2d 1058, it is unwise, ......
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U.S. ex rel. Matthews v. Johnson, 73-1424
...of existence of passion and provocation-- critical ingredients of voluntary manslaughter-- is of no relevance. Commonwealth v. Maleskie, 278 Pa. 387, 123 A. 310 (1924). Second, and independently so, a defendant in a murder trial felony or otherwise, is not denied due process when he is corr......
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Com. v. Davis
...the rape, then, when he killed in the furtherance of that felony, he is deemed to have killed with malice. See Commonwealth v. Meleskie, 278 Pa. 383, 123 A. 310 (1924). It may be argued that in the instant case, although rape may be one of the enumerated felonies, sodomy is not, and the evi......
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Commonwealth v. Davis
... ... or fear that his felony would be discovered, would make no ... difference. If he had the culpability to commit the rape, ... then, when he killed in the furtherance of that felony, he is ... deemed to have killed with malice. See Commonwealth v ... Meleskie, 278 Pa. 383, 123 A. 310 (1924) ... It may be ... argued that in the instant case, although rape may be one of ... the enumerated felonies, sodomy is not, and the evidence is ... ambiguous as to whether the [449 Pa. 476] victim was killed ... pursuant to an attempted rape or pursuant ... ...