Commonwealth v. Straesser

• Decision Date: 27 February 1893
• Docket Number: 25
• Citation: 153 Pa. 451,26 A. 17
• Parties: Commonwealth v. Straesser, Appellant
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

26 A. 17

153 Pa. 451

Commonwealth v. Straesser, Appellant

No. 25

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

February 27, 1893

Argued February 13, 1893

Appeal, No. 25, Oct. T., 1893, by defendant, George Straesser, from judgment of O. & T. Allegheny Co., Sept. T 1892, No. 34, on verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree.

Indictment for murder.

At the trial, before KENNEDY, P.J., and McCLUNG, J., evidence for the commonwealth tended to show that between 8 and 9 o'clock on the evening of Aug. 3, 1892, Joseph Brandl the deceased, was standing in the yard belonging to his boarding house, which was kept by Mrs. Stuekenberger, close to the gate leading into Holt street, along the side of which and next to the yard, was a boardwalk, on which Mrs. Stuekenberger was seated. Her son Frank was also near her, and her husband, George Stuekenberger, was in the yard near Brandl, who was clad only in his pants and shirt, and without hat, cap or vest, shoes or stockings. At this time there came along this boardwalk Johanna and Rose Straesser, mother and sister of the prisoner, who addressed some derogatory remarks to the Stuekenbergers in regard to a lawsuit or suits, between the parties, which they had all been attending at the office of Alderman Beinhauer, including in these remarks the deceased, Joseph Brandl, to whom was applied some opprobrious epithets. These remarks were replied to by Brandl, who told Mrs. Straesser to go on or he would come out and strike her, and they (the Straessers) saying for him to come out and they would fix him, or he would be fixed. Brandl went out with nothing in his hands and struck or slapped Mrs. Straesser, when she, her daughter Rosa and her son Joseph Straesser, who came up at that juncture, all laid hold of the deceased Brandl, at the same time crying loudly for help. Immediately the prisoner, George Straesser, came up, armed with a knife and stabbed and cut the deceased, inflicting the wounds in the abdomen, some three inches in length on the outside, vertically, and extending in depth some six or eight inches, into and through the abdominal cavity, cutting through one of the large intestines or bowels, into the omentum and the peritoneum, and into the kidneys, extending to the backbone on which it impinged, causing the death of Brandl. He also inflicted other wounds on the deceased, two in the buttocks, one of which was a large and deep wound, one on the head, another on the arm, and another on the hand and finger. The bowels of the deceased, as well as a portion of the omentum protruded through the wound in the abdomen, and he lingered in great agony until early next morning, when he died from the effects of his wounds.

Defendant claimed that he had no knife in his hand, that he did not strike the blow which caused the death of the deceased, but that the wound that caused the death was inflicted by the fall of the deceased upon the knife, which the deceased himself had in his hand.

The court admitted under objection and exception the dying statement of the deceased, which was as follows: "Southside Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pa. August 3, 1892. Mr. George Straesser come out and cut me. We had no words. Joseph Brandl, his mark. Witness his mark, G. J. Bleichner."

Objected to, because at the time it was made he was more or less under the influence of drugs. Objection overruled, and exception. [1]

Defendant offered to prove that deceased, Joseph Brandl, was a man of a quarrelsome nature, vicious disposition, and was feared in the neighborhood as a person of dangerous character, and had on several previous occasions threatened to shoot and kill people.

Objected to by the commonwealth as incompetent and irrelevant generally, and, secondly, because there is no proof contained in the offer to bring knowledge of these facts to the defendant. Objection sustained and exception. [2]

The court charged in part as follows, by KENNEDY, P.J: "As a general rule it may be stated that every homicide is presumed to be murder of some degree, and where it has been shown that the prisoner committed the deed the burden of reducing the crime from murder to manslaughter rests upon him. But the burden of proof of the intention to kill and the disposition of mind constituting murder of the first degree under the act of assembly, which I have just quoted, lies on the commonwealth. . . . As I have already stated to you all homicide is presumed to be malicious or murder of some degree until the contrary appears in evidence, and therefore the burden of reducing the crime from murder to manslaughter lies on the prisoner, when it is proven that he committed the deed. But while it is presumed to be murder, it is only of the second degree, until it is shown by the commonwealth to be murder of the first degree." (Then follows a statement of the facts of the case.) "But if you are satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the prisoner did strike the blow which did cause Brandl's death, then the presumption is that the crime is murder." (Followed by a statement of the law of manslaughter.) "But the burden of proving this is on the prisoner, as you will recollect. If he has not so proven, then the crime is murder of some degree, and it is your duty to determine whether of the first or of the second degree." [6]

Verdict, murder in the first degree. Defendant appealed.

Errors assigned were, inter alia, (1, 2, 6,) rulings on evidence, and charge, as above, quoting bills of exception and charge.

The judgment is affirmed, and it is now ordered that the record be remitted to the court of oyer and terminer for the purpose of execution.

Wm. A Hudson, Thomas Ewing, Jr., with him, for appellant. -- The evidence was insufficient to show the elements of murder in the first degree. It was, at the most, justifiable homicide, committed while a man was defending his mother and sister. (a) The intention to kill did not exist; therefore it was not willful. (b) The facts proven by the...